I need to update (well, rewrite really) a SMALL VB6 application which uses ADO to access a JET database, to a vb.net app in Visual Studio 2008.
My research suggests that I should use LINQ, but it doesn't seem to be possible to connect to JET. If JET is now deprecated, what should I use? Or should I use ADO.NET without LINQ?
Please don't answer SQL Server! - this needs to be an app that end users can install easily in corporate or non-corporate environments, and must not require any ongoing technical maintenance. I started to install SQL Express, but stopped when it required at least 2 system updates, as that will be far too complex for this little app.
Jet has been deprecated but there's a replacement in the form of ACE (Access Database Engine).
However, regarding using it from LINQ. The answers to this question have various suggestions and I've also read somewhere that it might be possible to use LINQ to DataSet to do it. Here's a blog post about it: Querying DataSets – Introduction to LINQ to DataSet but I can't find the link to where I read that someone had had success in using it to access an Access DB.
I'd suggest though, that if there are no clear cut solution for using LINQ, the pragmatic approach would be to just stick to normal ADO.Net and wait with using LINQ until you're sure that you're using a datasource that supports it fully.