Oracle

URL

http://www.oracle.com/index.html

FAQ

http://www.orafaq.com/

Wiki

http://www.orawiki.com/

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_database

license

commercial/proprietary; free for development from Oracle Technology Network; Oracle XE is free for production and development (and an excellent option all-around)

platforms

Unix, Linux, win32, win64

Pros

• Reputation for being capable of handling large scale databases
• Typically the database system others compare themselves to

Cons

• Requires bloated Oracle client installation on any machine that the app will run on
• Frequently the subject of migration discussions (to alternatives), usually for reasons of cost

DB API 2.0 Drivers

DCOracle2

URL

http://www.zope.org/Members/matt/dco2

licence

ZPL

platforms

Unix, win32

Python versions

DCOracle2 targets Oracle 8i and up.

There also is DCOracle (http://www.zope.org/Products/DCOracle/) for the older Oracle 7 and 8 versions, but this is unmaintained.

cx_Oracle

URL

http://cx-oracle.sourceforge.net/

licence

BSD like

platforms

Unix, win32

Python versions

2.2 - 2.5

Oracle versions

8i - 11g

mxODBC

URL

http://www.egenix.com/products/python/mxODBC/

Licence

eGenix Commercial License

Platforms

Windows, Linux, MacOS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX

Python versions

2.1 - 2.6

mxODBC is compatible with the Oracle ODBC drivers on Windows and Unix, such as the ones included in the Oracle Instance Client.

pyodbc

URL

http://code.google.com/p/pyodbc

License

MIT

Platforms

Windows, Linux, MacOS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, Any (source provided)

Python versions

2.4 - 2.6

Actively maintained Open Source project.

Precompiled binaries are available for Windows. RedHat Enterprise Linux, Centos, and Fedora have precompiled RPMs available in their Extras repositories.

Supported Python Applications

• Zope

• an Oracle (DCOracle and DCOracle2) driver exists for PyDO (Python Data Objects)

Web Links

Oracle Forum

Oracle Wiki's: English German

Oracle Documentation: 10g 9i 8i 7