Definition: A network file system - NFS is a technology for sharing resources between devices on a local area network (LAN). NFS allows data to be stored on central servers and easily accessed from client devices in a client/server network configuration via a process called mounting.
NFS became popular starting in the 1980s on Sun workstations and other Unix computers. Examples of network file systems include Sun NFS and Session Message Block (SMB) (sometimes called Samba) often used when sharing files with Linux servers.
Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices (that sometimes are Linux-based) also typically implement NFS technology.
