Oracle Database Discussions

Dear Someone at Oracle,

I posted information with the link to the Oracle 10g Express Edition on the Borland Delphi New Zealand Users Group today, and this intersting discussion below (or an excerpt of it took place).

Would you be able to respond to the Delphi Users Group memebers or here please as the issues raised do seem valid.

Looking forward to your reply,
Paul A Norman
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Paul Heinz to NZ
More options 15:14 (3 hours ago)

"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:
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
"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.
"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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Richard Vowles NZ
More options 16:56 (1½ hours ago)

Now that was worth knowing.

---
Richard Vowles, Solutions Architect, Borland New Zealand



Paul A Norman to NZ
More options 18:29 (2 minutes ago)

From the associated offical FAQ, this information needs to be reconciled to the above license details, I think Oracle would have a hard time of it in an American Court:


Who should use Oracle Database XE?

Oracle Database XE is the perfect choice for many different groups, including:

• Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, and other applications that require a database
• DBAs who need a free starter database for training and deployment
• Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who want to embed an Oracle database in their application or product to extend customer value at no additional cost
• Educational institutions and students who need a free starter database for their curriculum.


Can I use Oracle Database XE for free development?

Yes. There are no database license costs associated with developing applications for Oracle Database XE which offers the complete integrated set of Oracle Database programming interfaces including:

• SQL, PL/SQL
• Java, C, and PHP
• Windows .Net
• Oracle HTML DB
• C++, ODBC, OLE DB


Can I use Oracle Database XE for free deployment?

Oracle Database XE is free for runtime usage with the following limitations:

• Supports up to 4GB of user data (in addition to Oracle system data)
• Single instance only of Oracle Database XE on any server
• Only uses and executes on one processor in any server
• Can use up to 1GB RAM