I haven’t blogged for a while. And I know, there are a lot of comments waiting in the queue to be approved and answered. But meanwhile, let me tell you that Oracle Database 21c XE (Express Edition) for Linux is available for download now.

Photo by Jana Shnipelson on Unsplash
It’s been a while
Oracle XE (Express Edition) is the free version of the Oracle Database with almost full Enterprise Edition feature set but with some additional restrictions. The last version being available was Oracle 18.4. Now the 21c version is available for Linux.
If you wait for the Windows version, no worries. It will be available as soon as Oracle Database 21c will be available for download for Windows. And this shouldn’t be too far away.
The sky is (not) the limit
As usual, there are some restrictions with XE. While you can use Multitenant, In-Memory and many many other Enterprise Edition features, there are some limits you should be aware of:
- Up to 12 GB of user data
- Up to 2 GB of database RAM
- Up to 2 CPU threads
Download
While you will find the rpm here, you can download also two versions here:
Installation
You may want to check the Installation Guide at first.
Further Links and Information
–Mike
No plans to give slim container?
Not sure what you mean with “slim container”.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike, Do you know if SYSAUX is considered “user data” and adds occupancy to the 12Gb limit of the XE version?
Thanks in advance
Hi Juan,
it is “system owned” data, not user data.
Cheers,
Mike
This distribution files are not working with CENTOS 7
I tried many times and get the LISTENER already exists error
Hi Leticia,
as far as I am aware, CentOS is not a supported platform.
Please see the Forum whether somebody else has managed to install it, or whether others have hints to make it work:
https://forums.oracle.com/ords/apexds/domain/dev-community/category/oracle_database_express_edition_xe
Cheers,
Mike
Hi,
We made it work! With a fresh Centos 9 virtual machine.
Thanks for your answer.
Leticia
Thx!
Mike