Something lighter than nHibernate

Question

I want to develop a C# <-> Database application. I've considered using a ORM creating me classes for transparent access to whatever database I want to connect to.

I found nHibernate. But this seems very heavy and complicated to configure.

My question: Is something out there that is lighter than nHibernate?

Thanks, Andre

Edit: Love your answers. Nearly want to mark everyone as my favourite :)

Answer 1

You may take a look at Linq to Entities which integrates nicely with Visual Studio.

Answer 2

You can look at this set of posts "Build Your Own Data Access Layer" - it ends up building a lightweight ORM (and was written by one of the nHibernate contributers, Davy Brion).

From microsoft there are EF (entity framework) and Linq2Sql, though not sure that EF constitutes lightweight. See this comparison of EF and nHibernate (biased, as the writer is a heavy nHibernate contributor).

Answer 3

I found Lightspeed really easy to configure and use (much quicker than nHibernate). The express edition is limited to 8 mapped entities though so it is likely to cost you some money.

Answer 4

One of the easiest ones I've used is http://www.subsonicproject.com/

Answer 5

nHibernate is not complicated to configure. But I agree that it's sometimes too much for simple applications.

When I don't use nHibernate, I use simple ADO.NET objects.

When I don't use nHibernate, it's because ORM will be counter productive.