When MySQL began offering its database under an open source license, some
software experts predicted the startup would start a trend. Turns out they
were right.
IBM today said it is offering DB2 Express-C, a version of its database that
server customers, developers and partners can download for free. The idea is
to spur DB2 adoption in a highly competitive market populated by Oracle and
Microsoft, as well as startups such as MySQL.
DB2 Express-C offers the same core DB2 data server in a smaller package
specifically designed for use in software development.
Users can get community support for DB2 Express-C on IBM’s developerWorks Web site, but they can also pay for support from IBM.
DB2 Express-C may be deployed on all systems up to 2 processor cores, and on
AMD or Intel x86 with up to 2 dual-core chips. There is no limit to
database size, but the maximum amount of memory supported is 4 gigabytes.
DB2 Express-C supports the Windows and Linux operating systems on various
32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures. Several Linux distributors have
also announced that they will include DB2 Express-C in their Linux
distributions.
Current Linux distributions validated with Express-C include Novell Open
Enterprise Server 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server 8 and 9, Asianux 1.0, Mandriva Corporate Server 3.0, Nitix 4.2.2a, Red
Flag Advanced Server 4.1 and Ubuntu 5.04.
Clients who try DB2 and find it useful can upgrade from DB2 Express-C to any
of the DB2 Universal Database editions which support larger servers or
server clusters.
Express-C comes ahead of Viper, IBM’s next full version of DB2. Viper is expected
to handle both XML and relational data to dovetail with service-oriented
architecture (SOA)
Express-C comes two months after Oracle began offering a free version of
Oracle Database XE, which was created to give software developers, database
administrators and students a sense of what it is like to run their
applications on Oracle code.
Microsoft also offers
an Express version of its SQL Server database for free.