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.

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.