Networked collaborative app doesn't need to mean runs in a browser. A git repo fits that description, even a true distributed VCS with no server where every editor has their own copy and no single copy is authoritative. Each user chooses which changes to merge into their personal copies. The native versions of Microsoft Office when backed by Sharepoint also operates that way, allowing users to check out individual copies and edit them in a native editor, although in that case Microsoft is clearly trying to push people into editing directly in the browser.

A lot of these problems go away if you don't run in a browser, because user inherently trust software more when they're running a copy that can't change from underneath them on a second-by-second basis. I'm a lot more willing to give filesystem access to an application I have to explicitly install and that remains what I installed until I knowingly and intentionally upgrade it, as opposed to code pulled continuously from the network as I am working.