Increasing hardware performance of desktop computers accounts for a low-cost computing potential that is waiting to be efficiently used. However, the complexity of installation and maintenance of a large number of distributed heterogeneous computers is limiting the use of such systems on a large scale. Systems which are autonomic, capable of managing themselves are required. The architecture of QADPZ (Quite Advanced Distributed Parallel Zystem), an open source system for heterogeneous distributed computing is presented. The system allows the management and use of the computational power of idle computers from a network of PCs. Different autonomic computing features of the system are described, together with possible extensions of the system towards an autonomic distributed computing system.