Network File System (NFS) is a Unix-based file sharing protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1980s. The protocol is not a local disk system but instead allows computers to view the files on other computers over the network as if the remote files were local. NFS is used on Unix-based systems such as Solaris and AIX, Unix-like systems like Linux and FreeBSD, and has been ported to other operating systems like Windows and NetWare.