Microsoft LINQ History

History of the Evolution of MS Data Access APIs

http://blogs.msdn.com/data/archive/2006/12/05/data-access-api-of-the-day-part-i.aspx

Blog: "A Short History of the Evolution of Microsoft Data Access APIs," by Mike Pizzo (an Architect in the Data Programming team at Microsoft). Discusses the early years (ODBC, DAO, RDO, ODBDirect), componentizing data access (OLE DB), disconnected programming in a managed environment (ADO.NET), programming at the conceptual model (ADO.NET Entities and LINQ).

The Origin of LINQ to SQL

http://blogs.msdn.com/mattwar/archive/2007/05/31/the-origin-of-linq-to-sql.aspx

Matt Warren's blog, The Wayward WebLog, discusses how he became involved in LINQ to SQL, how he helped in the development of the LINQ to SQL ORM (Object Relational Mapping), and give some insights into the development of the LINQ to SQL ORM.