Here are a few good links to Orcas material (some old and some new). There is a lot of good and bad material out there with LINQ. These are some of the better ones that I have found. Feel free to comment about any other good LINQ / Data Access related links.

Downloads:

·         The best way to run LINQ with the most features using the current CTP’s remains to be to

o   create a VPC image

o   install the May 2006 LINQ CTP,

o   the August 2006 ADO.NET vNext CTP,

o   and the September 2006 ADO.NET vNext EDM Designer Prototype CTP.

Books:

·         Here is a great book on using LINQ and the C# 3.0 features by Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati titled LINQ for Visual C# 2005. The material is slightly dated as it was written with early previews, but its still a great read.

·         Here is Ferracchiati’s VB version of that same book.

·         This book (titled Foundations of LINQ in C# 3.0) is not out yet, but is scheduled for a March 1 release date. IT looks to be interesting based on some of Joseph Rattz’s blog posts.

C# 3.0 Features

·         Anders Hejlsberg has a great video on how C# 3.0 is evolving.  This discussed many of the C# 3.0 features that are the underpinnings of what makes LINQ tick. (posted mid 2006)

·         Sahil Malik has some great posts on C# 3.0. I recommend getting familiar with the C# 3.0 features before jumping into any of the Orcas /ADO.NET vNext data access features.

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 1: Implicitly Typed Local Variables "var"

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 2: Anonymous Types

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 3: Extension Methods

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 4: Lambda Expressions

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 5: Object and Collection Initializers

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 6: (LINQ) Query Expression Translation (to C# 3.0)

o   Demystifying C# 3.0 - Part 7: Expression Trees

Next Generation Data Access & LINQ Basics

·         A good place to start with LINQ is the Next Generation Data Access article. This explains some of the ideas behind ADO.NET vNext. (posted mid 2006)

·         In the MSDN Forums, Dinesh hints that the March 2007 Orcas CTP is planned to LINQ features on par with the May 2006 LINQ bits. There have been rumors of the next CTP being February 2007 or March 2007.

·         Some good information and questions/answers exist on the LINQ Project MSDN forum as well as the ADO.NET Orcas MSDN forum.

·         Here is a nice post that compares and contrasts LINQ to Entites and LINQ to SQL.

·         Scott Guthrie has been posting some great slide decks on LINQ, ADO.NET vNext, and Orcas in general at his blog.

o   Links to some good presentations

o   Orcas presentation

·         The ADO.NET Team blog shows some good information on:

o   LINQ to DataSets: part 2

o   Entity Data Model 101: Part 1

o   Querying DataSets: part 1

·         Sahil Malik has some great posts on Demystifying DLINQ:

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part1 - An introduction to DLINQ

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part2 - Setting up a DataContext Class

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part3 - Querying for Data using DLINQ

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part 4 - Stored Procedure/UDF Support in DLINQ

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part 4.1 - Stored Procedures that return scalar results

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part 4.2 - Stored Procedures that return a definite shape

o   Demystifying DLINQ: Part 4.3 - Stored Procedures that return variable shapes