Reporting in VB.Net

[GrimStoner]

I've been using VB for the past two years to design front-ends for MySQL databases. Thing is, I've never quite learned how to properly do reporting of the data in the MySQL database.

What I usually do is iterate through the data and export the required data to a csv file, with the catch-phrase of "you can then import it into any spreadsheet, excel, lotus, openoffice calc etc.". However, this requires users to think. Most of whom are unable to.

Is there a way to create a report, that can be printed directly from the frontend, like a library or an activex control? I've heard about crystal reports, but this costs money. Is there an opensource alternative? Another way to create reports?