If anyone has new or updated information, please correct what I've said below. I know Oracle's product and support offerings have changed since we installed our last contract with them.

1. Where can I read the exact license text for the different versions of Oracle? I definitely want to actually read them before making a decision.

Hmm. That's a good one. I don't know if it is available online, but you could get it by calling an Oracle sales rep.

2. How do "named user" licenses work exactly, both from a license and a technical point of view?

It is on the honor system mostly. There is a parameter in the Oracle startup file that restricts the maximum number of users that can be connected to the database. It is a hard limit. If you hit it, more users cannot connect until some disconnect. Now, you can bump it up if you want, but internally Oracle keeps a "high-water mark" in one of the system tables (it's not a secret, I just can't remember where it is), and if you call support they may end up seeing either the entry in your parameter file, or the high-water mark entry, and then bad things can happen.

3. How does Oracle support work? A certain amount of support is included in the license, or what??

Last I looked, support contracts have two parts--tech support and upgrade support (they have a name for it but I can't remember what it is). I think tech support is 22% of list price, and upgrade support is 17% of list. You would pay that every year. We pay for both, and upgrade support entitles you to upgrade to future versions for free.

The tech support end is divided in to two levels now, Silver and Gold (I don't think Bronze exists anymore). Gold is 4 hour response time, Silver is 24 hour response time. I can't seem to find my Oracle paper file right now to confirm that.

4. Oracle seems to be selling licenses for 9i, not the 8.1.7 that we'd actually be using, at least for now. If we buy a 9i license...

The impression I have is that if you buy the upgrade part of a support contract you end up with a license for "Oracle Server", no matter what version. You just need to open a TAR (for Technical Assistance Request) with Oracle Support via the MetaLink web site (metalink.oracle.com) and they can send you the media for the version that you want.

BTW, sort of off-topic, we went from 7.1.3 to 8.1.5 to 8.1.6 and when we installed the patchset for 8.1.7 release 2 our installation went from Oracle Standard Edition to Oracle Extended Edition. Surprise! Support's response when I called them? "It's OK, just don't use any of the EE features and you won't be in violation of the license."

Don Baccus said: "You can develop all you want without paying a penny, though, just pay when you deploy."

That's true. But sometimes they'll send the Oracle Gestapo after you to perform an audit. That happened to me one time after I spent $100 on the demo CDs.

The Oracle rep I was assigned to remembers me for the voice mail I left her which, IIRC, included some references to "corporate fascism" and "proletariat revolution."

I guess if I had downloaded it for free and then deployed without telling them I would have been cool...

talli

My understanding is that for web usage you buy power units.  You multiply total Mhz of your CPUs by a per-unit price and end up with a number that you use.  Note that buying a 200Mhz 1MB PentiumPro and loading it with 2GB of RAM and a 1-4GB solid state disk might be the cheapest way to go.

Oracle has not offered "power unit" licensing for quite some time.  "Named user" or per-processor, that's it.

Re-reading your comments ... here is the license for named user from the Oracle site:

For Named Users 

For Oracle Database Standard Edition, the required minimum is 5 named
users. For Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, the required minimum
is 10 named users per processor. If you are licensing by named user
for Enterprise Edition, follow the instructions below to calculate
the minimum number of named user licenses required for your intended
hardware configuration. 

Determine the number of processors on each server where the programs
are installed and/or running. 
Add together the processors on each server. 
Multiply the total number of processors by 10 for Enterprise Edition. 
The resultant number represents the minimum number of named user 
licenses required for this hardware configuration. 

Example: For Enterprise Edition on three computers each with two
 processors: 

Number of processors on each server = 2 
Total number of processors = 6 (3 computers x 2 processors = 6) 
Multiply the total number of processors by 10 - the required minimum
for Enterprise Edition is 10 named users per processor. (6*10 = 60
 named users) 
For this hardware configuration containing 6 processors the minimum
 number of named user licenses required for Enterprise Edition is 60. 

and this is also important:

Named User: is defined as an individual authorized by you to use the
 programs which are installed on a single server or multiple servers,
 regardless of whether the individual is actively using the programs
 at any given time. A non human operated device will be counted as a
 Named User in addition to all individuals authorized to use the
 programs, if such devices can access the programs. If multiplexing
 hardware or software (e.g., a TP monitor or a web server product) is
 used, this number must be measured at the multiplexing front end. 

Hope this helps.

According to oraclestore.oracle.com, SE "named user" licenses are $300 per seat, EE are $800.

This represents a considerable price savings (web licenses were costing "several" thousand dollars 18 months ago)

My clients have paid it, it's probably too late to recover costs, eh?

Meanwhile, PG rocks for most sites...

The main thing to keep in mind is that not even Oracle knows the answers!  If you called 5 different Oracle reps and asked your questions, you'd probably get 5 very different answers.

I always send our clients to buy their licenses from the Oracle Store;  it's the easiest way to do it and saves them from getting repeated followup calls from Oracle Sales trying to sell them more stuff, which is what happens to the one client we have who went through a sales rep.

My read on the named user thing is that in order to be legal you have to buy enough seats to cover the maximum number of users you exepct to have on your site at one time.  For your Intranet that's calculable;  for a public site it's kind of tough to predict.  Of course you can probably get away with just buying enough for the number of nsd threads you configure, since the internal "high water mark" table will be correct, but you were asking about doing it right so that doesn't count. :)  Doing it right it's easier and probably cheaper, unless your site's audiece is very small, to just buy a processor license and be done with it.

I have never called Oracle support;  everyone I know of who has has been underwhelmed.  The first line support people seem to be the new hires and many of them don't speak English very well, which is always difficult on the telephone.  What I hear is that you have to convince them to escalate your issue up several levels to get someone who really knows how to help you.

On the other hand, their Metalink site is quite good;  you can search the bug database, articles that their Tech Support folks use, and open help requests.  I've found lots of good answers there, and just for that reason I think it's worth paying extra for support.