Silverlight, WPF or Windows Forms?

Question

I need to create a desktop application for Windows and I'm in doubt about which technology to choose. Fact is that the application must do interaction with local resources:

• Communication with SQL (need support for SQLite and MSSQL - local and remote, and would love to use NHibernate; maybe even with Castle's ActiveRecord)
• Interaction with equipment connected via Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB and Serial (COM) port. I need to read a byte stream from sensors that connect via different protocols.

Preferably I'd go for Silverlight 4, and allow the application to run on the desktop with Full Trust. But I foresee problems with regards to these two requirements. Is there any solution for SL4, and if not, what alternative should I choose? I'm not limited to WPF or WinForms, but since it should run on .NET, I'm more or less limited to these 3 options (or am I?)

Answer 1

With a Silverlight app, you won't be able to connect to a SQL source without creating a service + you won't easily (or at all?) have access to the local resources such as COM port. If your app is intranet based, I'd go for WPF and click once deployment.