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I'm doing a project for a database class (don't worry, it's not due tomorrow :P), and I need an Oracle server I can connect to. I'm trying to install it on my home box, but I'm slow with Linux. Really, I'd just like a sandbox server to connect to so I can run my homework assignments on them. Are those out there?

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If your university does not provide you with equip labs for your assignments what are you paying for? –  Ian Ringrose Mar 13 '11 at 22:39
Ian: They probably don't provide the textbooks, notepads, or pencils either. –  Gabe Mar 13 '11 at 22:42
They have an Oracle server, but it's only available on campus. Silly. –  Danny Mar 13 '11 at 22:54

3 Answers 3

Why not try and use a pre-built Oracle VM ?

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I need to run PHP, JSP, and ASP.NET webapps on the server. Would that be easy to set up on one of those VMs? –  Danny Mar 13 '11 at 22:55
You can just either use the VM just for Oracle or put the development environment on the host OS. –  jamespo Mar 13 '11 at 23:10

To my knowledge there aren't freely available Oracle instances you can access at your leisure -- there'd be patching and hacking attempts to deal with. I don't see any revenue to gain from it, so it's very unlikely.

However, Oracle provides a free version (Express, currently 10g). If you want an instance you can connect to at your whim, I'd suggest using a Virtual Machine (VM) software so you could create & run a VM, that would use a host OS of your choice, in order to install an Oracle Express instance that you could then connect to. That, or setup a separate box for hosting Oracle from.

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You can use apex.oracle.com as a sandbox for simple queries and APEX development. But you don't get direct connection to the database, only through the browser. –  Gary Myers Mar 13 '11 at 23:16

You can get the free version of Oracle XE easily from eDelivery.Oracle.com It runs on windows and is dirt-simple to install. Great platform for testing things out quickly.

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