Oracle Database Discussions

I'm going through the process of installing Oracle 11g on a Sun E3000 that I picked up off eBay. My intent is to get a set up like those that I see at work, so that I can learn more about Oracle without messing with work machines. Needless to say, I am hoping to limit the cost for Oracle or Solaris support for this type of unstructured, personal learning experience. I thought Oracle wanted people to use their software for this type of learning experience, but the required Solaris patches listed in the install guide (e.g. 119963-14, 120753-06, ...) are premium content from Sun (which is now Oracle -- the SunSolve site is even branded "Oracle"). Is it really true that you can't install Oracle 11g without a Sun support contract?

I looked into the cheapest Sun contract. They have one for a couple hundred dollars, but it's only for one "socket". Naturally my E3000, which I bought for all of $150, has 9 CPUs in it. Frankly the "enterprise" (read: seriously expensive) Sun contracts stop at 8 CPUs, without directly contacting the Sun sales staff. It really looks like I would have to pay at least $5,000-10,000 to be able to load the patches to install Oracle, under a "free" license. Has anyone done this? Am I over-complicating things, somehow? Does the install not really need the patches listed in the install docs?


Thanks, in advance...

PK