Microsoft-provided data provider classes, the good and the bad?

Question

What are advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft-provided data provider classes in ADO.NET? are they fast?

Answer 1

SQLServer.NET data provider is high-speed and robust, but requires SQL Server license purchased from Microsoft, or you can get a free Express Version (if you get the new SQL Server R2 Express you get 10 GB of database storage!) (thanks from the comments, slipped my mind) http://www.microsoft.com/express/database/

OLE-DB.NET is universal for accessing other sources, like Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access and Informix, but it’s a .NET layer on top of OLE layer, so not the fastest thing in the world. ODBC.NET is a deprecated layer provided for backward compatibility to ODBC engines.

More in depth look at Data Providers http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s7ee2dwt(VS.71).aspx