Awesome Web Desktops
https://github.com/syxanash/awesome-web-desktops
The web's biggest curated directory of apps, portfolios and experiments that mimic the appearance and functionality of desktop operating systems, these are commonly known as Web Desktops (wikipedia).
Wikipedia:
A web desktop or webtop is a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application. A webtop integrates web applications, web services, client–server applications, application servers, and applications on the local client into a desktop environment using the desktop metaphor. Web desktops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or a graphical user interface on Unix and Linux systems. It is a virtual desktop running in a web browser. In a webtop the applications, data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely. The browser is primarily used for display and input purposes.
Simone's Blog Post
From the Awesome Web Desktops list maintainer, posted August 14, 2023. A few quotes from the article:
One of the main questions that I see popping up in Hacker News discussions whenever a new web desktop project gets shared is always:
Is there an actual use for these kinds of projects, beyond showing what can be done?
Personally, after navigating 169 sites and 30 archived ones, my answer is: yes. Web Desktops were generally very popular back in 2008/2009, then the trend slowly faded leaving space to mostly nostalgic nerds, but in general, you can build a lot of cool tools and complex web apps using a desktop metaphor. Especially these days with the support of powerful JavaScript frameworks.
An interesting discussion was raised by Jeff Atwood back in 2008, on the use of desktops elements and interactions applied to web apps. In the article, he didn't particularly support the idea of having desktops conventions into web applications, and he actually makes a good point:
When you build a "desktop in the web browser"-style application, you're violating users' unwritten expectations of how a web application should look and behave
But does this still hold up in 2023? By now, we should be pretty used to all kinds of wild user experiences on the web, even for enterprise software.