Mike Pizzo on LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework

Some of the best Entity Framework info is currently living in the MSDN forums.

Mike Pizzo is the Principal Architect on the DP (Data Programmability) team.

Today, Mike wrote a lengthy response to yet another query on “what is the difference between linq to sql and Entity Framework”. At DevConnections in March, I asked 5 different people from Microsoft this question and got 5 different answers. 🙂 A few weeks later, I wrote my own answer in this blog post. The DP team has become much clearer about thsi lately.

Here are some highlights from Mike’s reply:

  • LINQ to SQL is targeted more toward rapidly developing applications against your existing Microsoft SQL Server schema, while the Entity Framework provides object- and storage-layer access to Microsoft SQL Server and 3rd party databases through a loosely coupled, flexible mapping to existing relational schema.
  • LINQ to SQL has features targeting “Rapid Development” against a Microsoft SQL Server database.
  • The Entity Framework has features targeting “Enterprise Scenarios”. 
  • The Entity Framework is more than LINQ to Entities; it includes a “storage layer” that lets you use the same conceptual application model through low-level ADO.NET Data Provider interfaces using Entity SQL, and efficiently stream results as possibly hierarchical/polymorphic DataReaders, saving the overhead of materializing objects for read-only scenarios where there is no additional business logic. 

You can read the entire reply here.

  Sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss my conference & Pluralsight course announcements!  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.