Oracle is developing a free version of its database designed to lock in low-end users. 

The company released a beta of Oracle Database 10g Express Edition on Monday as a free download which can be freely distributed as an embedded database. A final version is scheduled for availability later this year.

The application is essentially a scaled down version of the enterprise grade Oracle Database 10g. The software is available only for Linux and Windows, and storage capacity for databases is limited to 4GB. It will not use more than 1GB of memory.

Support also is limited to online forums which will be monitored by Oracle support staff. Users with additional storage, memory or support needs are required to upgrade to a commercial version.

The database is targeting users who are "just getting started with databases ", according to Mark Townsend, senior director of database product marketing at Oracle. This group includes students and database administrators who are early in their careers.

But Townsend explained that Oracle also hopes to attract developers looking for a cheap embedded database for their Java, .Net and Perl applications.

"We think there is going to be a whole bunch of new people out there who might currently be looking at Oracle and just want to get something simple done, " he told vnunet.com.

"They can now take advantage of the best database out there and just get started."

The offering is designed to compete with the open source MySQL database, according to Peter O'Kelly, a senior analyst with the Burton Group. 

The rise of the free database, as well as Microsoft's SQL Server, threatens Oracle's position enough to justify the introduction of the Express Edition.

By offering a free database, MySQL attracted young developers who paid more attention to price than to the actual technology. In the long term this trend could have deprived Oracle of its developer and administrator base.

"During the peak of the internet bubble, the leading database management system vendors were getting out of touch in terms of their pricing," O'Kelly told vnunet.com.

"The open source competition is forcing them to be more pragmatic in terms of pricing. This is a very natural development in the market."