L2S (LINQ to SQL) is the dead end. LINQ for Entities, aka Entity Framework, is the winner and future direction for MS … and the foundation for DevForce EF.  

How does it affect us? POSITIVELY. Because people will become less confused about which Microsoft technology – L2S or EF  –   is good for them; it will become more obvious that they should choose EF … and when they choose EF they will be open to the benefits of our DevForce EF product.

LINQ – Language Integrated Query – is a language feature of  .NET itself.  LINQ describes a general purpose query facility. It is up to developers (both inside Microsoft and outside Microsoft) to provide implementations of LINQ that fit a particular purpose. Thus, there are many LINQ implementations including LINQ for OBJECTS, LINQ for XML, LINQ for ENTITIES, and LINQ for DEVFORCE (my coinage). You can write your own LINQ implementation to query something important to you … such as a flat file or perhaps an Excel spreadsheet. Let your imagination lead you! 

 LINQ is not limited to database queries. You should embrace LINQ no matter what data access technology you choose.