c# - LINQ to SQL use of => operand on String not allowed -

possible duplicate:
string1 >= string2 not implemented in linq sql, workarround?

to give brief summary of want achieve have table called application , stores application version numbers. contents of table example is

applicationid          versionid 1                      r1.01.01.01 2                      c8.00.00.01 2                      c8.00.00.02 2                      r8.10.00.00 2                      r8.20.00.02 2                      r9.00.00.01 2                      r9.00.00.02 2                      r9.00.00.03 3                      r7.00.30.00 

when doing query in tsql, there no problems , correct results (take note versionid nvarchar type)

select * applications versionid >= 'r9.00.00.01' , applicationid = 2 

but when start using linq sql such

var applications = v in db.applications                     v.versionid.startswith("r")                     && v.versionid >= "r9.00.00.01"                     && v.applicationid == 2                    orderby v.versionid                    select v; 

then error "operator >= cannot applied operands of type 'string' , 'string'

how achive in linq sql without changing on database side?

use string.compare()?

&& string.compare( v.versionid , "r9.00.00.01"  ) >= 0