There are two closely coupled benefits: ease of installation (one machine to do so) and ease of upgrade (again, single machine). That said, I much prefer deskt

There are two closely coupled benefits: ease of installation (one machine to do so) and ease of upgrade (again, single machine). That said, I much prefer desktop applications to web-based ones, especially when it's not me who hosts them. They may disappear overnight, they may break overnight, I don't control backups for them, I need constant internet access to use them (sometimes I work off-line, so this is a big no-no). And web applications on modern hardware (which I don't own, because why should I? my Dell D830 works satisfactory) are almost as fast as desktop applications on my older hardware. Meaning, they're slow.