If the Sword project is going to take hold of the zero-cost Bible software space (like it deserves to), it really needs a single client PC interface.  None of the existing frontends qualify for this because they all target a particular client OS or environment.  The "one true frontend" would need to work on at least the top three desktop/laptop platforms (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS) and preferably would scale down (perhaps with limited functionality) to handheld devices such as Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and the various embedded Linux platforms, such as Familiar and Maemo (the platform used by the Nokia Internet Tablet).

It seems to me that Java with a cross-platform, native-like performance GUI toolkit (i.e. SWT) is the only feasible way to achieve this presently.  Perhaps in the long run C# and the CLR might be usable, but they are nowhere near as mature as Java at present.  (For an example of how good an application like this can work, look no further than the BitTorrent client, Azureus.)

On the desktop, the most important thing to get right is a scholar-class user interface.  By this i mean that it must have at least the level of functionality that Logos 2.x offered 10 years ago, which can't be said for any of the current Sword frontends.  (Admittedly, i haven't kept up with the very latest versions of Bibletime because i don't use KDE.)

Here are some of the features i think are needed (sooner or later) in a "scholar-class" user interface:

• Fully-customisable MDI GUI, rather than fixed panes.  BibleTime is the only current Sword frontend that does this, to my knowledge.
• Right click actions for words customisable on a per-language basis.
• Search engine able to traverse all local content and provide search results in a form ready for saving or copying.
• Web publishing platform with integration between web texts, local texts, local notes, and web publishing.
• Interface for Internet collaboration on texts that integrates with the one provided by CCEL.
• Probably most importantly, an up-to-date, community-based, copyleft Bible translation.