Preface : What Is Progress® DataDirect Connect® Series for ADO.NET?

What Is Progress® DataDirect Connect® Series for ADO.NET?
DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET data providers are managed ADO.NET data providers, built with 100% managed code. The data providers are native wire protocol providers, which means that the data providers do not have to call out to unmanaged code—code outside of the .NET Framework—in the form of a database client.
The standard ADO.NET data providers are certified for running on the .NET Framework Versions 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 3.5 SP1, 4.0, and 4.5. The ADO.NET Entity Framework data providers for DB2, Oracle, and Sybase support Microsoft’s ADO.NET Entity Framework, allowing you to fully leverage the functionality of this object-relational mapping tool, no matter which application development approach you use—LINQ, Entity SQL, or ADO.NET Data Services.