[Mono-list] To access database

[Edward Ned Harvey (mono)]

I'm new to connecting a database in C#.  (But I'm familiar with admin'ing and using several different SQL databases - mysql, postgres, MS in particular).  There are about a zillion possible options, it seems.

I'd like to know, generally, is there a specific thing I should be focusing on, or focusing away from?  In particular...  There's all this linq stuff that I don't fully understand...  There seems to be a "connection" namespace / assembly.  System.Data.SqlClient...  System.Data.Linq...  System.Data.Odbc...

The goal is to support a server app, which will be supported on windows server and various flavors of linux server.  So we'd like to store and manipulate data in whichever type of database the admin prefers to deploy, which is likely to be MS, Mysql, Postgres, Oracle...  I'd like to do as little as possible by way of thinking about the database internals.  I'd like to, as much as possible, manipulate data structures (class hierarchy) in memory, and use the database in the backend as transparently as possible to the application developer (me).

I admit I haven't looked into it much yet.  I know the need is coming, I'm trying to avoid going into it foolishly (but sometimes that's precisely what's best to do.)

Thanks for any wisdom...
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