A web-based desktop environment - two months later
Tags: react, linux, typescript, node
Published: 2020-09-24 17:56:50

About two months ago I have posted here an article on a project of mine called ["web-desktop-environment"](https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/web-desktop-environment), if you're interested in the idea of a web-based desktop environment you can read about it [here](https://dev.to/shmuelhizmi/a-web-based-desktop-environment-1440)
{% link https://dev.to/shmuelhizmi/a-web-based-desktop-environment-1440 %}
in this post I'm going to share the progress I have made since I first posted the article

# A brief introduction to the project 👩‍🏫
["web-desktop-environment"](https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/web-desktop-environment) is a desktop-environment (a visual interface for a computer) that can run in a web browser over a NodeJS server, the advantages of "web-desktop-environment" over a regular desktop-environment is that it is much slimmer and portable compare to a regular desktop.

# Use cases
 - interface for a cloud server (can possibly be used as a replacement for control panel)
 - interface for small/low power computers like the Raspberry Pi zero
 - interface for controlling your computer over a long distance

# A demo video 📹
{% youtube bESUKpevsro %}

# A live demo 🖥
There is a live demo (serverless) running [here](https://web-desktop-environment.vercel.app/demo)
![Demo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/zcn6x4kcb39z3dsvzlm5.png)

# PWA Screenshot 🎞
This is a screenshot of the app running as a PWA in a detachable windows mode
![PWA](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/wf46hygofk5hzqt89bbb.png)

# Upcoming features 🎆
Media Players apps are on their way
![Media Players](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/rxor5t2brsgs7zr88a5g.png)

# Looking to build a full-stack app that pushes the web to its limits yourself?
if so you may be interested in the framework I build and used to build this project, the framework is ["@react-fullstack/fullstack"](https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/react-fullstack) and you can read more about it [here](https://dev.to/shmuelhizmi/react-fullstack-a-new-react-framework-for-building-true-react-full-stack-applications-4c4n)
{% link https://dev.to/shmuelhizmi/react-fullstack-a-new-react-framework-for-building-true-react-full-stack-applications-4c4n %}
{% github https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/react-fullstack %}

# All my progress since the first post 🥳
Since the last update, I have made a few new features and improvement
 - Resizeable windows - you can now resize windows.
 - Notepad - a notepad app.
 - PWA - the app can now also run as Progressive Web App.
 - Detachable windows mode - you can now run the desktop in a detachable windows mode which means that every window will open as a separate native window.
 - style changes - the app is currently moving thought a big style redo, to give it a more "native os" like style.
 - big speed improvement from moving the backend from reflow to my own framework ["@react-fullstack/fullstack"](https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/react-fullstack)
 - custom themes - create your own theme using the settings app

# Contribute yourself 🎁
if you like the project and interested in contributing to it yourself - feel free to open a PR thought Github.
Note that contribution does not have to be in the code side of things, contributing to the project README would be awesome!

# Checkout the project 🎮
{% github https://github.com/shmuelhizmi/web-desktop-environment %}