ORM (Object Relational Mapper) - what is available

Once you get familiar with ORM's you will "Love or Hate" the idea.

For a new project I write I decided to use once more an ORM Tool. There are so many ORM's outside there and because I develop it only in .Net C# and I love the idea for open source I decided I only go for an open source object relational mapper.

Microsoft comes out with some stuff called "Linq to SQL" and "Entity Framework". I could find lot of information about it but in the end I could NOT find a really working solution which is based on a n-tier architecture. Since my point of view is that applications are also applications which are based on different tiers or models I'm not satisfied with this "0815 / drag & drop" Microsoft solutions which are done in 5 minutes.

An application has to be divided into various tiers. Lets say it simple:
- Data Access Layer
- Business Object Layer
- Presentation Layer

if you need more well done but I prefer a clean architecture instead of one Website Project which contains a mix of anything. Can be that for other people it is good enough. Anyway, enough about my personal point of view.

Following criteria are important to me:

• Perspective on Performance
• Perspective on Data-source independence - access various data-sources SQL Server, OBDC etc.
• Perspective on Lazy Load of parent entities
• Perspective on Pluggable Creation Mechanism
• Perspective on Separation Of Tiers And Layering Preferences
• Perspective on Transactions Control
• Perspective on Mapping (1:1, 1:N, N:M)
• Perspective on Query Facilities

After many hours of researching, downloads, testings and clarifications I come up with the following list which could be interesting. Please note the notes beside are my personal point of views and does not need to match anything other opinion.

• http://www.ornetmapper.com/contact.aspx - Problems to generate ASP.Net Membership Tables needed to adapt code for creating first samples.
• http://www.codeplex.com/crudcodegen - Console application and doesn't display errors
• http://www.codeplex.com/IrisGenerator/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Quick%20Start&referringTitle=User%20Guide - Very nice UI but it throws an exception upon creation, after downloading the solution from codeplex I was not able to compile the solution.
• http://www.codeplex.com/ZFCGDAL - It's a Mygeneration Software Template. I loved to work in past with MyGen but the template Ver 2 does not work for some reasons.
• http://www.codeplex.com/affinityorm - It's only an attempt, currently it display tables and data but not more then that.
• http://www.codeplex.com/mitadata/ - Only contains a test project, not usable
• http://www.codeplex.com/LazyFramework/SourceControl/DownloadSourceCode.aspx?changeSetId=15856 - VB.Net - doesn't match my requirements.
  http://www.codeplex.com/netopenfwk - Don't get what this should do with ORM.
  http://www.codeplex.com/DbEntry - A huge framework and sample applications are available but how do I generate code I don't know
• http://www.codeplex.com/Sculpture - Amazing Model Driven approach - you have to watch screen casts!!!!!
• http://www.codeplex.com/jmr - not active since aug. 2007
• http://www.codeplex.com/autodbupdater - Its not an ORM Mapper (DbUpdater keeps a simple record of all scripts that have previously been run against a database and which 'version' of the database each script was run against)
• http://www.codeplex.com/normal/SourceControl/ListDownloadableCommits.aspx - not active since dec. 2007 - download is not compilable
  http://www.codeplex.com/worm - Web ORM - a mix of C# and VB.Net - no clue where to start.
• http://www.codeplex.com/nanomapper - Very nice and simple but it would need extensions e.g. save xml schema and selection of tables which have to be generated.
• http://www.codeplex.com/SimpleDAL - started project need to check in some months agian

Notice: if you have an actual ORM mapper which is not listed above post them please (Only Open Source Projects please and no shareware - comments with links to shareware application will not be approved!!).