Is it possible to use Native Clients from previous releases to connect SQL Server 2012? Is it possible to use SQL Server Native Clients from previous SQL Server releases (e.g. SQL Server 2008 R2 Natice Client) to connect SQL Server 2012 database?
Yes, although it's possible that some new functionality might not be supported by the older client. We have a number of programs using the 2008 Native Client to connect to 2012, and haven't observed any problems.