Please explain “How Fanboys See .NET Data Access Strategies”

Question

This chart has been linked a number of times on blogs that I follow and I feel like a rube not getting it. So, going out on a limb here and asking this community. Please explain this grid from the blog post here.

Answer 1

Here's what the picture means:

Entity Framework

• Itself: A polished, professional solution
• NHibernate: For nerds/geeks/open source zealots
• Subsonic: People use this?
• ADO.NET Datasets: Pain in the behind

NHibernate

• Entity Framework: Broken and in dire need of repair
• Itself: The holy grail of ORMs
• Subsonic: Not complex enough, for kiddies (Lego ORM)
• ADO.NET Datasets: Pain in the behind

Subsonic

• Entity Framework: Broken and in dire need of repair
• NHibernate: A cluttered mess where you can't find anything
• Itself: Paradise, like a refreshing breeze on a tropical island
• ADO.NET Datasets: Pain in the behind

ADO.NET Datasets

• Entity Framework: What's that? Never heard of it.
• NHibernate: What's that? Never heard of it.
• Subsonic: What's that? Never heard of it.
• Itself: A pain in the behind.

So basically:

• ADO.NET Datasets suck, and are a pain to use, to everybody.
• Someone who uses ADO.NET Datasets is ignorant (has no idea about any alternatives)
• NHibernate and Subsonic users are elitists and/or open source zealots
• Entity Framework users drank too much Microsoft kool-aid and need to have GUIs

Answer 2

It is showing a graphical representation of how the fans of each solution see the other solutions.

Entity Framework sees Entity Framework as a professional, well groomed, attractive solution. It sees ADO.Net Datasets as a headache. NHibernate sees Entity Framework as an old and broken solution, and itself as the holy grail. Etc.

Answer 3

It looks like a mess up as ADO.NET Datasets are NOT ORM nor where they ever meant to be. The rest look to be ORM mappers and I guess the pictures give you an idea of how easy it is to use.