Has Entity Framework reached critical mass?

Question

I've been rolling my own object mapping system for over ten years and my current .NET version is pretty stable and I understand it. I've always kept a watchful eye on commercial developments in this area such a Hibernate but I've stuck with what I know.

However, I keep hearing more about Entity Framework and wondered whether it's time to investigate with a view to replacing my own home-grown system with Entity Framework. Microsoft has had a bit of a checkered history in this field with ObjectSpaces getting cancelled. I assume that project has become Entity Framework. Why did they cancel ObjectSpaces and have they got around the problems in Entity Framework? Is Entity Framework "better" than Hibernate?

Cheers, Rob.

Answer 1

NHibernate has been around a lot longer and i think that if any .NET mapping library has reached critical mass, nHibernate would be it. Have you checked it out?

P.S. NHibernate is also a port from Hibernate which is THE mapping library for Java. That's a petty good pedigree.

Answer 2

I saw a demo of the entity framework ver 4.0 that will be released with Visual Studio 2010. Looked like it would make you very productive. I think this version will make it main stream for .net developers. More info here.