Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL and Oracle
Amid the debate about which is better and have more future (two things that not necessarily go together) between LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework, one thing they have in common is the fact that Oracle is in “no comment” mode about both of them. It’s like Oracle would be expecting that the lack of its “official” provider for Entity Framework, let alone LINQ to SQL, would somehow move people to develop in Java instead of .NET Framework. IMHO, Visual Studio 2008 is so productive that people may first consider moving from Oracle to SQL Server before moving from VS 2008 to JDeveloper.
Luckily, .NET Framework has a big ecosystem of developers and ISV’s: enter Devart, a software house in Russia or Ukraine –I’m not sure. They’ve been offering for a while now an Entity Framework provider for Oracle, I have had the chance to use it with Oracle 10g with good success. The good news is that a few days ago they released new versions of all of its providers (changing their names while at it), including dotConnect for Oracle 5.00. Even more intriguing, this new version includes a LINQ to SQL provider for Oracle, something supposedly so complex to do that it would have taken a long time before it even existed. To be fair, I haven’t already used this last provider, but the very fact that it’s available is exciting. Now Oracle friendly Visual Studio 2008 developers (no, that’s not an oxymoron at all) has two good paths to follow. Let the debate begin!