This item was migrated from the DevDiv work item tracking system [ID=11262].
Comments: Rather than a specific in-memory mode, I think an in-memory provider that explicitly supports all of the EF features would be cleaner. The [Effort project](https://effort.codeplex.com) is almost exactly this. As an additional benefit beyond enabling different kinds of testing which can leverage LINQ instead of have to walk circles around it, I think the EF team maintaining something similar would do wonders for making sure the design isn't accidentally fitted to, say, SQL Server.
Comments: Rather than a specific in-memory mode, I think an in-memory provider that explicitly supports all of the EF features would be cleaner. The [Effort project](https://effort.codeplex.com) is almost exactly this. As an additional benefit beyond enabling different kinds of testing which can leverage LINQ instead of have to walk circles around it, I think the EF team maintaining something similar would do wonders for making sure the design isn't accidentally fitted to, say, SQL Server.