Mike Borozdin's Blog

A blog about programming, web and IT in general

The List of the LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework Providers

If you are using Microsoft SQL Server you don’t experience any problems, SQL Server are supported by both LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework. Frankly speaking, it couldn’t be otherwise, since they all are made by Microsoft.

However, if you are using a non-Microsoft database engine, it’s certainly worth knowing if you can use LINQ to SQL or the Entity Framework with it. Moreover, it’s always better if there is native support.

  LINQ to SQL (native) LINQ to SQL (3rd party) Entity Framework (native) Entity Framework
(3rd party)
SQL Server Yes who cares? Yes who cares?
SQl Server CE Yes who cares? Yes who cares
Oracle No DBLinq
LINQ to Oracle
LightSpeed
dotConnect
Yes dotConnect
EFOracle
DB2 No ? Yes ?
MySQL No DBLinq
LightSpeed
Planned dotConnect
PostgreSQL No Npgsql
DBLinq

LightSpeed
dotConnect
No Npgsql
dotConnect

According to the table, the Entity Framework is natively supported by a greater number of databases than plain LINQ to SQL. Anyway, if you cannot find a native provider, you can always find a 3rd party one, but you must remember that some of them are not free and/or may lack some features.

Feel free to correct this table, if it contains a mistake and comment on individual providers. It’s reasonable to keep this list comprehensive. Although I wish every major database would have native support of both technologies.


Posted by Mike Borozdin on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 1:10 PM GMT
  Shout it Kick it!  
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post RSSRSS comment feed

Comments

DotNetKicks.com

Tuesday, January 06, 2009 6:14 AM GMT

trackback

Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

The List of LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework Providers

Ken United States

Wednesday, January 07, 2009 7:28 AM GMT

Ken

I've been waiting for mysql to add EF support for almost a year Frown

Mike Borozdin

Wednesday, January 07, 2009 11:07 AM GMT

Mike Borozdin

Ken,

They stated they were going to release it. However some people claim that due to that fact that Sun which bought MySQL are experiencing financial difficulties, they mayn't release it soon...

Andy Germany

Monday, February 09, 2009 3:14 AM GMT

Andy

Does Oracle really have a native Entity Framework support?
I've looked for a data provider for 2 hours now and I could find only third-party tools.

Greta

Sunday, May 03, 2009 3:50 PM GMT

Greta

I found only 3rd party product for Oracle EF support (DataDirect,devart) and Oracle EF framework with disclaimers to not be used in production on MS site. Where did you get info tha tOracle is supported by native EF ?

Mike Borozdin Russia

Monday, May 04, 2009 2:35 AM GMT

Mike Borozdin

Hi Greta,

Sorry if I'm mistaken, I took this information from the EF blog...

Mike Borozdin Russia

Monday, May 04, 2009 2:36 AM GMT

Mike Borozdin

Actually, I don't say that Oracle is supported natively by the EF. I mean to say that the .NET provider made by Oracle supports the Entity Framework.

Comments are closed