Oracle has launched a starter edition of its leading database, which ISVs can develop with, deploy and distribute at no charge. The free Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE) is available for immediate download as a beta version.

Oracle Database XE is built on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base and is fully compatible with the family of Oracle Database products including Oracle Standard Edition One, Oracle Standard Edition and Oracle Enterprise Edition. Users can start small, choose to upgrade to other editions of Oracle Database 10g as demand grows, and move their applications to other editions without changes.

Oracle Database XE delivers the same SQL and PL/SQL interfaces available in other versions of Oracle Database 10g, plus a wide range of programming interfaces to support the needs of different development communities. For example, full development and deployment support is available for Java, .NET, PHP, and Windows developers. In addition, Oracle Database XE enables developers to take full advantage of Oracle HTML DB for rapid web application development and deployment.

Oracle Database XE is available on 32-bit Linux and Windows operating systems, and can be installed on any supported hardware platform. As a free, starter database, Oracle Database XE:

• uses at most one CPU or one dual core of processing capability;
• restricts memory usage to under 1GB;
• is limited to a single instance per system; and
• stores up to 4GB of user data.

ISVs can distribute and/or embed Oracle Database XE with their products as long as they adhere to the above runtime usage criteria.

"Developers, DBAs, students, and ISVs often look to no cost DBMSs to get started in developing and learning to develop database applications," said Carl Olofson, research director for information management and data integration software research at analyst firm IDC. "When such a DBMS is supported by a wealth of literature, online technical material, and professional experts, and allows developers to easily grow and support their applications and data needs over time without needing to convert their database later on, the result is a low risk path that offers a high potential return not only immediately, but in the long run."

Tim Payne, vice president technology marketing, Oracle EMEA said: "This announcement is of key interest for our partners. They now have the capability to develop, deploy and distribute just one version of their code. With Oracle they can handle requirements from the very smallest systems up to those with the most demanding performance in terms of availability, throughput or number of users. On top of this, Oracle's 'hot-pluggable' strategy of integrating seamlessly with customers' existing systems while vigorously implementing open standards and supporting the key operating systems like Windows, Linux and Unix, provides investment protection for both our partners and their customers."