DB2 has been off my radar for a while, but I circled back around due to my continuing rage at Oracle and their stupidity in not releasing Oracle 11g for Solaris/X86. To hell with ’em… IBM has done a wonderful thing and released DB2 9.5 for Solaris/X86… whats more, there is an Express C version. Express C is a thinned down free version of DB2. This means that you can legally run a modern, enterprise grade database at no cost on the worlds best enterprise grade OS. DB2 and OpenSolaris is an awesome tag team. You can download it now: DB2 9.5 (Viper2) Express C

“But I don’t know DB2!” you say? Good news! Like Sun IBM has an awesome campus evangelism effort, and there is a complete DB2 on Campus video series that will train you up. There is also an excellent free eBook: Getting Started with DB2 Express C. Pair that up with the industries best documentation effort (IBM Redbooks) and you can’t loose.

And Joyent fans… yes, DB2 will run beautifully in a Joyent Accelerator. Screw Oracle… lets here it for DB2!