Not to mention, those VB client/server apps were not as popular with users as HN likes to reminisce. And modern IT departments have often completely banished that stuff.
There are probably others that don't need HTML user interfaces. I wasn't suggesting to use VB but there has to be modern UI native/client app frameworks or libraries. The problem IT departments had (speaking from personal experience) was the variation of client machines, DLL "hell" (shared library version conflicts) and patching. If the app is delivered and run as a container on the client's machine, a lot of those issues go away.
Just remember the classic fails such as Java, Flash, Silverlight, etc. Web always had the better UI for 95% of usecases, and it gets better by the year. And I expect our machine overlords will continue that.