I am using .net 4.0, and when I talk to a database using the SqlConnection class, etc., is it still ADO.net or died from this dinosaur?
ADO.Net is alive and well. Almost every ORM there for .net is built on it so that it does not go away any time soon.
This dino is not dead ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET
The ADO.NET Entity Framework is a set of data access APIs for the Microsoft .NET Framework, similar to the Java Persistence API, for the version of ADO.NET that ships with the .NET Framework 4.0 .
SqlConnection DBConnection, System.Data.Common (, ADO.NET).
SqlConnection
DBConnection
, ADO.NET - , Linq to SQL Entity Framework. ADO.NET , .
Yes. In fact, ADO.NET is more integrated with new language features and technologies than ever before. Linq to SQL and Entity Framework sit on top and use ADO.NET to interact with databases, for example.