Is Entity used a lot? We looked at using it but it seemed to be inferior to NHibernate (don't remember details, think there was a problem with type error detection and other stuff).
http://code.google.com/p/dapper-dot-net/ <br/ > https://github.com/robconery/massive <br/ > http://www.toptensoftware.com/petapoco/ <br/ >
Both are "heavy-duty" orms, while those 3 are more lightweight. My personal view is that for writes and maintaining a domain model, NH (or EF, but I prefer NH) is a good option, and when you need performance or just want a light layer to ease the mappings from sql to objects, micro-orms are the best option.
I do miss using Linq to query the db, but not enough to make me go back. I use EF in my main job, and while it does the job, sometimes I find myself being constrained by the framework. That's not an issue with EF so much as it is an issue with any kind of ORM.
I do see where there could be some ways to improve querying the database where you're doing a lot of joins or returning data that is not limited to the table design at all.
Basic queries do work, but not ready for production use.
I was able to put in full text function support in NH HQL rather easily in an app and I don't see that ability in EF. I'm working on a desktop application and the ability to precompile the dynamic proxies would help the startup time of the application. I would love if I could do that in EF, I've done it before in NHibernate.
I've noticed you've made great strides with the latest versions, and Microsoft support here in Uruguay has always been great (in particular Pablo Garcia which now moved to Chile).
Keep up the good work :) .
Edit: I'm not on the team, but we're doing one of our main new projects with EF v4.