14 DAY TRIAL // The newly launched Free Database 10g Express Edition was designed for students and all users from the low-end category and it represents the scaled-down version of the enterprise grade Oracle Database 10g. For now, the simplified version is available only in beta, but the final database should be ready by the end of this year.
This low-end database by Oracle is completely free of charge and can be downloaded in Windows and Linux versions. Its maximum storage capacity reaches 4 GB and it needs 1 GB of memory to run.
As for what support users will have, it will only be available on dedicated forums, which will be closely monitored by Oracle employees. Since this will be a product designed for students and beginners in the database world, high-quality advice is a must in order to benefit completely from the database.
Even though Oracle officials have stated that the product addresses students and database administrators who are early in their careers, it seems that the company also hopes to attract developers looking for a cheap embedded database for their Java, .Net and Perl applications.
The offering is designed to compete with the open source MySQL database and is an obvious response to the rise of the free database and Microsoft's SQL Server, which threatens Oracles's position.