Rules of thumb for WinForms vs. WebForms

[BillyTheKid]

Are there any rules of thumb for when it is more appropriate to use WinForms
over WebForms. It strikes me that WinForms is best suited for many/most
"Intranet" and some "Extranet" scenarios but wholly inappropriate for
"Internet" scenarios.

I ask because there seems to be a school of thought that considers
standardizing exclusively on WebForms. I am not necessarily comfortable with
this as it comes across as having a hammer and thus seeing the entire world
as a nail.

Thoughts?

 

[Clay]

Billy,

You may have the right idea in your thinking. I look at
it in terms of how you want or need to distribute the
application to the client base. You have less knowledge
(or control) of who your clients are in an internet
deployment vs. intranet. So web forms might be better.

Windows apps can have very sophisticated and powerful user
features that are more difficult to provide through the
web. They may be better suited for an intranet. However,
intranet deployments may be difficult for windows apps if
you have many many users or users that don't have
administrative rights to install an app on their
computer. It all depends upon your knowledge of the
client at the other end and what they can do at their
end. There are lots of performance issues as well, and
many options besides web apps vs. windows apps (such as
hybrids and terminal services). Hope this helps.