Can or can't it be done ?
Using Hibernate as a persistence layer in combination with a fat client(like a Swing app).

According to the Hibernate datasheet it is .
Some aren't sure. Others try to make the best of it.

So I suppose the answer is something like yes, but with limitations and be sure to (not) do this or that (sessions, caching, ...).
I fully agree with Gunther Schadow on his concerns.

As our team is about to embark on a Swing+Hibernate journey, I'd rather avoid the "what shall we do with the drunken sailor" phenomenon, a couple of weeks/months later.

Gunther and others, what if a small project was created ?
A couple of tables, nothing fancy (products, supplier, stores, ..) with a little UI connected to that.
Little util classes and others will be added along the way.
Maybe with the help of one of the Hibernate developers, this could grow as the default Hibernate Swing example(dreaming).