> > Is it about reusing Java knowledge, unique Java libraries, something else? >
You seem to be asking "why write desktop apps" in general. For my own projects there have been two different drivers (for different programs): 1. Peer to peer networks and the web don't mix well. If you want to write a P2P app, it's going to be a desktop app. 2. Security The latter is not something that's talked about much but my company is not the only one that is motivated by security. I was talking to someone a few days ago who works at a very large, well known software firm and he told me they have a department that handles sensitive documents. Their admin and control plane apps are all desktop apps (not JavaFX though) because they want the additional security. Why more secure? No XSS, no XSRF, no clickjacking, no injection-prone text based protocols (if you do it right) etc. The web is a fundamentally insecure platform because it's entirely text based, so buffer boundaries are marked in-band instead of using length prefixes. This design choice is so systemic the web essentially cannot be fixed. Managed desktop apps using traditional widget toolkits, with binary protocols between client and server (e.g. protobufs) eliminate entire classes of vulnerabilities and the few classes that remain are easily understood and caught via audit or code review.
