Oracle Corp is putting version 4.0 of its Lite small footprint database for remote users into beta and will ship the 350Kb, $200 code in March under the brand Oracle8i Lite. Is this the cut down version of Oracle8i you may ask. Err, no actually. While the 4.0 release enables users to work within a web environment while connected, Lite 4.0 doesn’t include Oracle8i’s internet file system enabling users to store all kinds of document and data types in the database. It runs Java applets but is not written in Java. Lite 4.0 only works with Oracle8I for now. It is working on a version supporting Sun Microsystems Inc’s Chorus microkernel, which is being fitted to Java OS, but more interestingly a new, much smaller version of Lite is being prepared for use with PDAs, including PalmPilot. Currently Lite runs on a PC to which PalmPilot is connected. And what will the next version of Oracle 8i Lite be called? Oracle diplomatically defers to whatever nomenclature the big brother database ultimately sports. And we’re not starting down that road again!
