The main advantage of using a distributed system is its ability to improve scalability and reliability. In a distributed system, multiple interconnected nodes work together to process tasks, allowing for workloads to be balanced across various locations. This architecture can handle increased demands efficiently by adding more nodes without significant downtimes. Additionally, if one node fails, other nodes can continue to operate, enhancing the system's resilience. Such characteristics make distributed systems highly effective in environments that require high availability and fault tolerance.