Personally, where corporate users are known to be running Windows I think
Smart Clients (or at the very least AutoDeployed Winforms using Remoting)
are an excellent way to give the user a real "Windows" experience.   It can
be a solid option and does not have to wait for .Net2.

What Mr. Hollis mentioned long ago
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnadvnet/html/v
bnet10142001.asp
) and we all saw at the beta presentations truly works.  I've made a number
of them that have been running now for years (literally) on a bicoastal
network.

As you already know, what won't work with AutoDeploy is COM/ActiveX controls
(and DirectX or any other tech that goes low into the user machine and
requires local drivers) so you will have to find replacements.  For the
usual replacements (robust Grids, etc) either use the ones that come with VS
or go to managed versions such as the ones from ComponentOne.com  (did you
know that you can get all of the real ComponentOne Winform controls with a
full deployment license as part of the free VB Resource Kit at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/vbrkit/default.aspx ?) these work with any
managed "language" and, because they are 100% managed components, they
follow their parent assemblies down to the user machines automatically. I've
never had a problem with my use of FlexGridPro.Net at all).

If you have to talk to Mac people then you have to code down to them with
the lowest common platform which is the browser ... then again you don't
seem to have that restriction because you are already using OCXes.

For more specialized OCXes you will have to look around for managed versions
or, you may be surprised to find that you can now code the functionality
yourself with .Net :)

Just an opinion, from real experience.

Robert Smith
Kirkland, WA
www.smithvoice.com