Oracle Database XE hits market

Oracle on Tuesday announced the release of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition, a free version of its database software. Oracle Database XE, which was launched as a beta version last fall, is now generally available on 32-bit Windows and a range of Linux operating systems.

Oracle Database XE comes at a time when the company is facing greater competition from other providers of low-cost or free databases. Oracle noted that "hundreds of thousands" of programmers have already downloaded the free database since its beta version became available.