Since a few days, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Express LocalDB Release Candidate 0 is online.
What is SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB?
This is a dedicated version of SQL Express for developers.
By using the SQL Server Express 2012 LocalDB, developers connect directly to a SQL Server database without the requirement of an installed SQL Server instance like Developer Edition or SQL Server Express.
Programmers can easily write to SQL database files and read from SQL Server database tables without dealing with the management of a SQL Server instance on their local machine.
For more information, see here
It is very easy to install (Next > Next > Next > Finish).:-D
How to download it?
Microsoft introduced such a small and streamlined installer for LocalDB that the MSI (SqlLocaLDB.MSI) has a size of 27.6 Mo (28,946,432 octets) only and it gets installed in less than a minute.
You can get the Installer MSI from here
A few words about SqlLocalDB utility
Developers that use SQL Server LocalDB as database for their application’s storage needs can use SqlLocalDB.exe over CMD Windows.
The SqlLocalDB utility (SqlLocalDB.exe) is a simple command line tool to create and manage an instance of SQL Server Express 2012 LocalDB. The tool is installed in the ToolsBinn subfolder like the other SQL Server Express files.
Type “SqlLocalDB -?” in the CMD to display help documentation in order to see available options.
For more information about SqlLocalDB, see here
Have fun ! 🙄