"Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that's free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. Oracle Database XE is a great starter database for:"With Oracle Database XE, currently available as a Beta release for Windows and Linux, you can now develop and deploy applications with a powerful, proven, industry-leading infrastructure, and then upgrade when necessary without costly and complex migrations. A production release is scheduled for late 2005.
- Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, and Open Source applications
- DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment
- Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge
- Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum
"Oracle Database XE can be installed on any size host machine with any number of CPUs, but this free version of the world's leading database will store up to 4GB of user data, use up to 1GB of memory, and use one CPU on the host machine.
Ah, yes. But do read the fine print i.e. the license
agreement,
BETA TRIAL LICENSE: Oracle Corporation ("Oracle") grants to you a
no-charge trial license to use the pre-production beta version of the Oracle
Database Express Edition software, documentation and product training (the
"Software") provided to you by Oracle solely for
evaluation purposes until January 31, 2006. Either party may
terminate the license for the Software at any time.
Upon termination, you shall cease using the Software. You will
ensure that all your personnel who may access and/or use the Software during the
trial period specified above will comply with the terms of this agreement. You
also agree that your organization will be responsible for any breach of the
terms of this agreement by all personnel who may access and/or use the
Software. Any feedback or other information you provide Oracle relating to
the Software shall be received and treated by Oracle on a non-confidential and
unrestricted basis ("Feedback"), and Oracle shall have a worldwide,
royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, and irrevocable right to use Feedback
for any purpose, including but not limited to, incorporation of such Feedback
into the Software or other software products. You may not
use the Software for any commercial or production purpose. You shall not:
(a) remove any product identification, copyright notices, or other notices or
proprietary restrictions from the Software; (b) use the Software for commercial
timesharing, rental, or service bureau use; (c) cause or permit reverse
engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of the Software; (d) disclose results
of any benchmark tests of any Software to any third party without Oracle's prior
written approval; (e) duplicate and/or install the Software other than as
permitted under this agreement; or (f) assign or purport to assign the rights or
obligations under this agreement. All dates provided during the pre-production
beta trial period are subject to change. During the pre-production beta trial
period, you are licensed to use all features of the Software under the terms of
this agreement. Unless otherwise provided as an update to customers in
accordance with Oracle's technical support services, if and
when the Software is released in production, you may acquire licenses for the
production version of the Software in accordance with Oracle's then standard
licensing and pricing terms and conditions (which, at Oracle's sole discretion,
may allow license of only some rather than all of the features of the
Software).
Now, this license
will likely change when the final XE product ships but this is Oracle we are
talking about here, and it will always be free-as-in-beer (and only as far
as Oracle likes it), not free-as-in-speech.
This is aimed
directly at MS SQL Server Express Edition and MySQL et al. and is Oracle playing
for time trying to slow down the commoditisation of the database market whilst
it attempts to transition to being an Applications provider (i.e. Oracle
Financials + PeopleSoft + JD Edwards + Siebel + Retek =
'It's the apps, stupid!")
TTFN,
Paul.
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