The ADO.NET driver won't be further developed, as officially announced in the ADO.NET Team Blog. Originally missing in .NET 1.0, in which the SQL classes where specifically for Microsoft own SQL Server, the driver is being retired because (apparently) many customers use third-party drivers. Maybe because they really work better, or maybe because they don't fully trust Microsoft in providing support for a "competing" technology. And this move might prove them right.

The announcement in itself is really minor, from my point of view). The implication I see, though, is that this is another push towards Microsoft .NET lock-in strategy. The company is more than willing to give away the .NET runtime, and even a good portion of the development toolset, but having full control of the platform means pushing developers (not all of them of course, but quite a few) towards a complete Microsoft stack, from Office integration to SQL Server, from Exchange to its own online services. What it wrong about that? Absolutely nothing, from Microsoft's point of view. (for example, I remember a time Sun was trying to convince people they needed a Sparcstation because Java applications were slow).

The problem is that a large number of .NET developers (and also a few of the "luminaries") don't see this lock in. Nothing wrong in using .NET, but don't get just everything Microsoft gives you as a freeby. Everything has a cost, after all. With LINQ for SQL available for SQL Server only (at least, out of the box) and the Oracle driver gone, this is more and more apparent on the database side. But it is not the only case. And before you ask, no, the same is not true if you stick on the native Windows platform, which I consider very open... and on which you can find support (even from Microsoft) for most databases.

PS. Had CodeGear dared stopping to deliver a database driver for a competitor, Delphi developers would have staged a large protest (partially rightfully). I've seen complains for this Microsoft decision, but not really as much. But if I missed them, links would be appreciated.