ADO.NET

ADO.NET is the next version of ADO, there isn't much difference, but there is a huge lean towards SQL Server. There are new ADO objects, connectors, commands, adaptors, etc. and there is an exact duplicate for the SQL Server versions, the SQL Server versions are said to provide more functionality for SQL Server and let it open up its features with XML and all that, I think its just bias to their only database server. There is also a lot of stuff to do with data storage and greater support in VS.NET for these new tools. They can make the access a bit longer, as filling a dataset requires a data adapter, a data connection and usually a data command.