when to write an out of browser application

I am reading about out of browser silverlight applications and cannot think of many use cases for开发者_StackOverflow中文版 it. One only scenario i can think of is where your application need ability to work offline and when its online then it can synchronize with the server ( or something). But in that case I can simply have a WPF ( or old style Winform) application that is communicating with server. Can anyone help me understanding better uses case for these out of browser applications.

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There are some good answers on SO that should give you some background on Silverlight OOB vs. WCF:

Silverlight OOB vs WPF ClickOnce What are the advantages of silverlight out of browser over wpf or vice versa?

I will add that as a corporate developer Silverlight has its benefits over WPF or WinForms in that there is no need to install the full .NET Framework to run the applications. OOB gives a more desktop like feel w/ Start Menu icons and easy access w/out the need of visiting a URL to run the application. There are a few things that you can do in elevated trust in OOB that you can't do in the browser (though that is changing w/ full trust rights both in-browser and OOB in SL5).

Here's some of the details on the features you get access to w/ elevated trust: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee721083(VS.95).aspx

It really comes down to your usage scenarios, ease of framework deployments and the environment you are developing for. Each set of tools has its benefits and drawbacks.