EDIT (the above is a bit more snark than I intended, let me add a little more):
NFS's direct (still widely used) competitor, SMB, natively supports:
- Authentication
- Transfer encryption
- Authentication encryption
- Has open implementations across platforms
- Supports individual account management, and large enterprisey account management (LDAP/AD/etc)
With SMB, I can share out a directory on the network that allows visitors access, optionally authenticated with a simple username and password.I can share out specific directories with easy control over who can access what. You know, basic network file sharing capabilities.
[[ And, don't take this as a love for SMB, it too has many issues and legacy junk ]]
NFS stands for Network File System, not Network File Sharing. If you gave a disk to someone, the permission bits wouldn’t stand for anything too.