Linq is an XML based object driven query and data manipulation language.
The XML part is in two halves. The data structure definition is XML, though you can code it by hand. You can also use XML as a data source.
Object driven comes from the primary language used to build queries is an OO language. In .NET 3.5, this is equally supported for VB.NET and C#.
My next post will break this down some more later.
Consider this a first installment of several posting between now and early to mid November.