Well, not all of it, but I have your attention now, do I? I intalled Oracle database 10g 64-bits edition on my Ubuntu AMD64 (Feisty). Works like a charm. You need to install a ton of packages, but after that, it works without a glitch.
To get Oracles HTTP server to work (not to be mistaken by the real application server, which is a completely different beast) one needs to install the companion CD. There is a companion CD in a 64 bits version for Linux. Yeah. Don’t you think that it contains a recompiled version of Apache, since it does not.The Apache server on the companion CD is the normal 32-bits version.
Oracle likes spending its money buying all sorts of companies, instead of supporting their customers and developers. Mind you, I’m trying to install the thing on Ubuntu, which is not supported by Oracle at all. But judging by the number of forum messages and blog posts about Oracle on 64-bits OS-es, I can only conclude Oracle doesn’t care about 64-bits at all.
Their 11g database is available for Linux now. The specs demand a very recent PC or server, but it’s only available as … a 32-bits version.
Why is that? Hardware manufacturers are pushing 64-bits systems like crazy, but the software (and OS-es) is way behind. Why? AMD64 has been around quite some time. Intel has a lot of 64-bits processors. What are they all waiting for?