heyputer/puter

Puter is an open-source, self-hostable operating system that runs entirely inside a web browser. It presents a full desktop environment, meaning you see a desktop with icons, windows you can drag and resize, a file manager, and an app store, all delivered through a web page. The problem it addresses is that your personal files, applications, and computing environment are currently locked to specific devices and cloud platforms. Puter's goal is to give you a portable personal computer that lives on the internet, accessible from any device through a browser, with no proprietary lock-in because the entire platform can be hosted on your own server. It works by running a Node.js backend server that manages files, user accounts, and application hosting, while the front end delivers a graphical desktop interface using JavaScript and standard web technologies. Developers can build and publish applications to Puter's built-in app store through a developer API, meaning third-party tools can run inside the Puter environment as if they were native desktop programs. For self-hosting, the project provides a one-line install script for Linux and macOS and an equivalent for Windows. The hosted version is also available at puter.com for users who do not want to manage their own server. You would use Puter if you want a cloud desktop environment that you fully control, either as an alternative to Google Drive or Dropbox for personal file storage with a richer interface, or as a platform for building and distributing web-based applications. The tech stack is JavaScript throughout, running on Node.js on the server, licensed under AGPL-3.0.