Dare wrote a good post about the Live Framework (is it Microsoft’s GData or something else) but one thing kinda jumped out at me in his summary:

the client-side Live Operating Environment is a technology whose benefits elude me. I admit it is kind of cool but I can't see its utility

I haven’t got much time but luckily this is simple.

Why do you want a local instance of the operating environment running? here are a few quick and dirty bullets:

  • SYNC BABY! Sure offline is a benefit, but SYNC is about bringing data closer to devices, you need something which actually executes the sync. (and peer to peer sync)
  • Offline access – planes, trains, tube, net connection goes down, you want that data offline.
  • Local apps
    • Mesh enabled web apps – you need a local host to run the MEWAs
    • Other types of apps – the LOE provides a local HTTP server which exposes the resource model so apps can code against it and in the background all the data is sent wherever it needs to be.
  • Remote Control – I know this is a bit of a wildcard, but its pretty useful. On Windows boxes you can remote control one of your other devices. pretty neat.

UPDATE: Danny has written much more about why the LOE is great.