While I am aware that this topic is previously discussed in at least two threads, I think it deserves a new discussion.
We have a client who will have some of its consultants working on the site where no Internet connection is possible. They always work in offline mode, create the data and use a central synchronization mechanism to synch this data back to the corportate server. With that said, these consultants(1+) connect to a local server where a gears enabled web based application is hosted. Now this entire consultant setup has no access to the www! And it makes sense for not having internet connection for them(let's say they are working in a huge oil platform which has its own server but no internet connection). The application that we develop is used by these consultants as well as others who might have internet access. We deploy the application on the consultants site(server) using a CD. It will be really bad if we have to choose not to use Gears only because a internet connection is not available! About the security updates: I agree with the gears team that security updates are necessary. But for an environment explained above(where there is no internet connection), there would be no security threats. If the client browser is always shielded from the outside world then even a old gears installation should work as long as the deployed web application knows what gears features it is using. btw, we use gears for the Desktop api(mainly multiple file upload, blob etc). In the future we see ourselves using other features as well. It would be really helpful if the gears team give it a thought. btw, appreciate all the hard work and great ideas that have gone inside gears!!!!
