Free database software from Oracle

NEW DELHI: Database giant Orcale has announced the release of a free version of its database software. Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 codebase.

Currently available as a beta release for Windows and Linux, the database software can be used develop and deploy applications, which can later be migrated to a production scale database.

The software can be useful to developers working on PHP, Java, .Net and Open source applications. DBAs can use it as a starter database for training and development. It can also be useful for educational institutions as well as independent software vendors (ISVs).

Though, Oracle Database XE can be installed on any size host machine with any number of CPUs, the free version has limitations like it can store only upto 4GB of user data, 1GB of memory, and use only one CPU on the host machine.

The free version is built on the same codebase as other Oracle products. It has the same common SQL and PL/SQL interfaces available and comes with multiple programming interfaces to support different development communities.

The software can be downloaded from here.