I read Paul Sorensen blog : Sun certifications will be renamed next week.
For instance the Sun Certified Network Administrator will be Oracle Certified Expert, Oracle Solaris 10 Network Administrator.
But to get the OCE Solaris title, you need to upgrade your certification [...] to receive an Oracle certification title (check more details on the Oracle Certification website here).
I never upgraded my Sun credentials, I am a Solaris 2.6 system admin and Solaris 7 network admin, but this equivalency with OCE surprised me.
There are even two OCM Java certifications : Oracle Certified Master, Java EE 5 Enterprise Architect, originally Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA) and Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer, originally Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)
Also, since a few months, there is an upgrade to the 9i OCM DBA certification : 11g OCM Upgrade. I hope I can do this one 
Solaris, certification, news
certification
If you want to start with developing free software on old technology, you can download the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition.
Actually, Oracle 10g is more than 5 years old and it is the only version available as Express Edition, 11g has not been released at the time of the writing, and no patch has been released, not even for the worst bugs or security breaches.
Most probably you will not want to run this for your sensitive data.
If you are serious about Oracle Development, you could download the Enterprise Edition for free, and get the Personal Edition on Oracle Shop for support and patches.
Last Friday 13th August, a news/rumor (not an official announcement) was posted on the opensolaris forum, apparently OpenSolaris has been cancelled in favor of an Oracle Solaris 11 Express. Not sure if it will come in the same format as the database XE, but this does not sound to please the community.
After the Oracle sues Google, it does not make Oracle very popular in the opensource community at the very moment
YMMV
Solaris, license, news
express edition
Did you go to http://www.sun.com recently? You will land on oracle.com !
But more will come.
The conference JavaOne will be in SanFrancisco with Oracle OpenWorld.
The Sun Developer Network and Bigadmin will be integrated in OTN.
Welcome Sun Developers Ensuring community continuity
MySql and java.sun.com have the Oracle logo.
That was fast! Well, Oracle is quite used to acquisition, only this week they bought AmberPoint and Convergin.
Still MySQL strategy will probably change, I cannot believe Oracle will encourage the users to save millions on Oracle License by migrating to MySQL
http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/unlimited.html
news
oracle buys sun
After months of harassment between Oracle and Europe Commission, the deals got approved by the European Commission.
Still MySQL founder Monty Widenius wants to have Russia and China reject the deal to save the future of MySQL… This will delay the deals further. Good for IBM, bad for Oracle !
news
oracle buys sun
Released as announced for 2009Q4… database, 11.2 for Solaris x86_64
Still Oracle is suffering with European Union Commission who is still blocking the Sun deal.
google news about the deal
11gR2, installation, news
solaris x86_64
HPUX Itanium, Sun Sparc/x86_64, AIX –> october-december 2009
Windows, HPUX Risc –> april-june 2010
Ref: Release Schedule of Current Database Patch Sets
Dates will change, keep an eye on the schedule, and do not base your business on expected dates ! Please be patient
dba, news, support
release
You will get CPU and even PSU (Patch Set Updates are proactive cumulative patches comprised of recommended bug fixes that are released on a regular and predictable schedule)
But no more patchset. This the first time I see a release with only 1 pachset.
Well, if you use Linux, you can go to 11gR2. Otherwise you may better stick to 10.2.0.4 for a few more months
Ref: 742060.1
11.1.0.7 is the last patch set for Release 11.1
dba, installation, news
11.1.0.7
http://www.oracle.com/sun
I really enjoyed this news. It is both my favorite OS (Solaris) and my favorite database (Oracle) committing to a common future. I have been more than sceptical about Oracle Linux and Oracle Database Machine entering the Datacenter world, but now I feel relieved that Oracle is putting value in acquiring serious database platform (oracle/sparc)
On the application side, acquiring Java is more than a smart move against Websphere …
news
oracle, sun
I just read a post from Barry Mc Gillin about apex on MacOsX.
After having being using Vista for one year, I would really welcome a Mac as my next notebook. But what about Oracle Database on Mac OS X?
According to otn, the latest release as of today is a deprecated 10gR1 for the deprecated platform PowerPC.
However, according to metalink, a 10gR2 is planned for the first quarter of 2009 (sic)
Db 10gR2 on MacOS X Intel
And 11g is planned too Db 11gR1 on MacOS X Intel, Schedule to be announced.
11g, installation, news, support
Mac