Oracle has just released the beta version of its free Express Edition database. This Oracle 10g Express Edition features a small download size, Windows and Linux native installers, and easy-to-use HTML DB interface to the database.
Oracle: Free Express Edition Database Released in Beta
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I wonder how much difference these restricted databases (10g, MSDE, etc) will make. I’m sure plenty will be used by developers, but I’d sooner take a free database (when possible) which has no limitations. At least then one can stresstest with a database larger than the 4 GB limit.
Of course it’s ideal for packaging with other applications, like Veritas does with MSDE in Backup Exec.
Perhaps the most grivous restriction is that Borland’s dbExpress driver needs to be replaced for Express Edition of Oracle.
Delphi is very popular around the area where I work and most businesses use custom software written in Delphi to access Oracle databases.
Grow up !!! Delphi is a ugly pascal RAD, not a language !! its only remain in Latin America… Real World Are happy with this Oracle gift, I still gone with Mysql and Postgresql, but for those small software company its a great notice. There are many windows small applications with two choice options: MS-Access or MS-SQL Server/Oracle. I think these software customers will replace they cheap Access model option for a reliable, solid and free cost Oracle version. For Linux Applications, I really don’t see any great advantage at all, but still is a great option for small bussines.
If you want to test database with no limitation, you can use Oracle 10g Standard One, Standard or Enterprise Edition. If I am not mistaken, they are free to use as long as for development use (with no production server using it at the same time).
But if you want total free oracle database server that the only limitation is 4GB limit with no functional limitation, I think this is a very good offer.
At least for small companies, they don’t have to pay to use it in production environment like other editions.
This smells a lot like SQL Server Express. I think it’s great that Microsoft and Oracle offer these express editions for free. The limits on SQL Server Express: uses only single CPU, uses maximum 1GB RAM and 4GB maximum database size. Great for small and medium-sized applications.
There are only Windows and Linux editions, where the hell is Solaris edition??! Windows and Linux are for pussies…
can’t see a problem here =)
There are only Windows and Linux editions, where the hell is Solaris edition??! Windows and Linux are for pussies…
You still living with your mother?
How did you find out that my mother is a Solaris shop?
Postgresql complete is a very small download, comiles in a snap on any platform, works as well as oracle, and provides better standard tools. Oracle is doomed
Unfortunately, a lot of people pick Oracle simply because:
1) it’s Oracle.
2) it was recommended to them by consultants who, surprise, surprise, change an arm and a leg for Oracle consulting and support.
3) it was recommended to them by their DBA who has absolutely no clue how to maintain any other database besides Oracle, because maintaining Oracle DBs suck up so much time, they don’t know anything else. That and the DBA gets paid an arm and a leg.
4) It’s “enterprise”.
5) Politics. This one is fun, moreso when the company in question is populated by ex-Oracle people.
6) Their knowledge of databases is stuck in 1995.
At work, we’ll take SQLServer and Postgres over Oracle anyday, but our boss has an infatuation with Oracle (and Sun) for the kind of reasons above. There’s very little that Oracle can do nowadays that other DBs can’t do as well or better…well, except cost you a fortune.
There are plenty of things other databases can’t do. Can you say grid computeing. Can you store 800 terebytes in a sql server database or postgre database. And if you can, can you actaully query that data and expect to get something back in the next 100 yrs.
I work in a fairly big company and while I passed the Oracle developer exam (still learning for the DBA exam although I had few jobs as DBA
) , I have access to perform regular tasks (backups,restore job scheduling) on 5-6 MS SQL Server. Never, but never have I seen a databases bigger than 30 Gigs. And that was a demo database for everyone to play and kill. The production database is something like 18-20 GB and we are talking here tens of thousands of customers. But is correct, we are not doing warehousing, so this might be one reason. However, I have to admint, I have never seen such big databases. Anyway, thing is , it will worth the effort to use grid computing on a “small” database? I have few queries that run reaaaly slow. I wonder if that makes any difference if we upgrade to 10g.Of course Oracle consultants will say that’s true, but I preffer to hear somebody else 
. Friends know why…
Oracle is doomed
Now, you said it. mark this page and come back in 100 years to test your theory.
It’s not open source everyone. Run run for the hills. Don’t even attempt to download it or you will burn in hell for it. We can’t support this it’s not open source run run I say. hahahahhaah
It’s not open source everyone.
Talking about open source, neither is Google, right? Still, the majority of us use it because it is good.
I’d like to see a comparison of this RDBMS to these three:
PostgreSQL
Firebird
MySQL
Running a manufacturing and distribution company for 10 years, with 300 employees and thousands of orders and customers annually, we never hit the 4GB disk space or 1GB of RAM.
So, even today it’s a good size database. 4GB is a LOT of data when it’s just customer numbers and item codes.
But the issue is that at this level, there’s no real compelling reason to run Oracle.
MySQL and Postgres will work just fine in that environment.
It’s clear that Oracle will work better on the high end of machines. Large SMP systems with heaps memory driving huge SANs.
Some Sun engineers have done some probing of Postgres internals (as manifested by DTrace) and found issues with things that could work threading better. They’ve also been working close with the Postgres guys and there have been Sun/Postgres rumors flying for a while.
So, if you’re basically stuck with a low end environment, why choose Oracle? Knowing that when you want 4.1GB for a data converion or a large import, or any other reason folks abuse databases, that you’re DOA. Or when you swap out that single core machine for a Dual Core machine (and Oracle sees that as more than one CPU).
All that and you get to pay Oracle consultant prices who would probably rather be working on a project for Fortune 1000 than helping you with your single CPU machine and your 10 users.
The low end market is saturated, as we’re at the level of DB maturity where for a majority of transactional systems with reasonalble indexes and queries (vs decision support/data mining), the databases are all reasonably close to each other in performance. None of these DBs will take a “slow” application and make it “fast” on the same hardware with the same application and schema save for perahps a few outliers.
So, why hinder yourself with a crippled database out the door when you can get a free “free” database that will let you at least grow incrmentally and can well keep up with the larger systems for many applications as is.
You guys keep missing the point regarding why companies use Oracle ,MS SQL, and IBM DB2. Here are some reasons that come to mind.
– Stable companies. I’m sure Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM will not go out of business within the next decade or so.
– Price is not everything. Just because you can save 40K on a license does not make a cheaper alternative the right choice. Remember there are alot of big companies that 40K or even 500K for licenses is nothing.
– Vendor support. Home many high end CRM, banking,accounting systems, or database management tools work on MySQL, PostreSQL, or Firebird out of box.
– Support. Usenet and the web are NOT support. If you get audited by a real company or some federal agency you will see stars for no real support.
Finally, I’d like to comment on an earlier post regarding why your boss keeps picking Oracle over open source solutions. The reason why your boss picks Oracle is that he/she will never get fired for making that choice. If anything ever goes wrong and he/she has to go before the CEO or the board and explain why the database with all the customer information is still down after 24 hours, saying Oracle ( a top USA companies ) is working on it will prevent his/her early departure from the corporation via pink slip.
Just my 2 cents…
– Stable companies. I’m sure Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM will not go out of business within the next decade or so.
Open source is not going to go away anytime soon either.
– Price is not everything. Just because you can save 40K on a license does not make a cheaper alternative the right choice. Remember there are a lot of big companies that 40K or even 500K for licenses is nothing.
Not much money, but if you don’t have to spend it on
software, you could use it for something else, e.g. marketing.
– Vendor support. Home many high end CRM, banking, accounting systems, or database management tools work on MySQL, PostreSQL, or Firebird out of box.
This is a perfectly valid reason to go for Oracle. However lately the add on market for free databases seam to be growing, so this may change as time goes by.
– Support. Usenet and the web are NOT support. If you get audited by a real company or some federal agency you will see stars for no real support.
You can buy support for Postgresql, MySQL and Firebird as well. The advantage of doing that, is that you may actually get that support to modify the database to fit your needs. And as for professional support from big companies like Microsoft or Oracle, it usually doesn’t have much better quality than what you get on internet.
Finally, I’d like to comment on an earlier post regarding why your boss keeps picking Oracle over open source solutions. The reason why your boss picks Oracle is that he/she will never get fired for making that choice. If anything ever goes wrong and he/she has to go before the CEO or the board and explain why the database with all the customer information is still down after 24 hours, saying Oracle ( a top USA companies ) is working on it will prevent his/her early departure from the corporation via pink slip.
The best way of keeping your job is to make sure that doesn’t happen. Most of the times things like that happen the culprit is closer to home. Think bad procedures, bad planning,… Much of that have nothing to do with what database product you chose. In fact, choosing an overly complex product could lead to more problems than if you keep it simple. Use the right tool for the right job. Sometimes that tool is Oracle, sometimes it is something else.
Open source is not going to go away anytime soon either.
Most of FOSS projects are dead in the first 2-5 year. The future of Postgresql is more stable, but IMHO not Oracle or Microsoft.
You are not only getting a nice database for free with this Oracle Package but also a very nice RAD tool in HTML DB that Oracle sees as their alternative to Access and Excel applications/data. HTML DB allows you to easily build a nice web application through the use of wizards though you can also get your hands dirty with SQL, PL/SQL, HTML and Java script if thats your thing.
I know this seems half like a commercial but I would also be very interested if someone knows any open source web based RAD solution that has some of the same capabilities. I see a hole in this area between developing your own applications from the bottom using php, ruby etc. to taking advantage of the prebuilt modules of your choice in the many CMS/WIKI/Blog/Forum open source solutions.
You can read more about HTML DB here (check out the Quick Tour screencast developing an database and application from an Excel spreadsheet): http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/htmldb/index.htm…
or try HTML DB by registering for a free workspace here: http://htmldb.oracle.com/
One of the more impressive sites built using HTML DB:
http://www.dance-tunes.com/
How the hell do you know that site uses HTML DB?
You can see it from the structure of the links on the site. But I would not have seen it myself if the site had not been mentioned on Oracle’s HTML DB Forum: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=137 (free registration required)
And it seems like the Windows version might have been pulled. It was there yesterday as I have already downloaded it. I guess some larger bug has been discovered and it might be back soon again.
Ah ok.
Yeah I noticed that link was there one minute and gone the next. Thought I was going crazy. Thanks for the info.
“IBM earlier this month released a free version of its own DB2 database as part of a PHP development package.”
Anyone knows where to get that package?
Here is the link in oracle website to download the windows version? I can see only the linux version:(
I can’t find it either. Must not be available quite yet.
Has anyone else out there been able to find/download the Windows version (since 10/30/05)???
Download the Complete Files
oracle-xe-10.2.0.1-0.1.i386.rpm (198,565,928 bytes) (cksum: 750165846)
Not exactly small for my taste. I’m on dialup…
They don’t have a Solaris edition. Perhaps that will only appear after 10g R2 comes out for Solaris in a couple of months. Either that or they assume that everyone running Solaris is using big iron and will only be interesting in Standard and Enterprise Edition.
The Windows version is back on the site.
Here is the product page for Oracle 10g XE. I can recommend the Online Self-Study Tutorial.
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html