SFTP with chroot and using keys is by far the easiest way to achieve
that.
I hope that is a misunderstanding.
Text-based clients are provided by default in all distros likely to be
used on the desktop, with the exception of one...
Also, a growing number of file managers (such as Konqueror) already
included SFTP support and all that is necessary is to punch in a URL.
If you mean extra, graphical SFTP clients, there are many others to choose
from besides the file managers. Filezilla is popular in some
demographics, same for CyberDuck and Fugu.
Others have mentiond WebDAV, which is useful but harder to set up and
maintain accounts. Same for Samba, which is in ports.
OpenAFS/Arla is yet another option, but is overkill for small,
centralized groups.
/Lars