We found an interesting article about improving performance of Entity Framework by using "precompiled views": http://neverindoubtnet.blogspot.ch/2012/03/squash-entity-framework-startup-time.html
We have tried this - we use the EF Power Tools extension to auto-generate the precompiled views. Our application was still running afterwards, but I have doubts whether these views are being used at all.
The article above states that SQL Express must be installed. We use DevArt dotConnect with an Oracle database. I wonder how the Microsoft-cooked EF Power Tools should know how the correct SQL for the precompiled views looks like. Does it look at the web.config and find that dotConnect is the provider and retrieve the SQL statements from that provider?
To lead this ad absurdum, I messed up all the strings in the precompiled views file (DataContext.Views.cs) and ran the application - it still worked perfectly.