Where to begin?

"How do I get my hands on a database?"

There are several choices out there for you but, let's assume you have the following criteria.

- You have very little money. - You have very little time - You have very little experience.

You would think the "barrier to entry" would be pretty significant, wouldn't you? Well that was the case in the "old days!" Now, even with a modest PC/Mac you can get your hands on a full blown database and even some "middle ware" and tools.

(Full Disclosure : I am an Oracle employee and am most familiar with Oracle products. I am sure (and hope) there are other solutions out there. Also, being an Oracle employee, I should add that these are MY views and NOT those of the company.)

Here is what I am going to propose. Why not install some kind of "visualization" software and then use a "virtual appliance" (aka "virtual machine")? Sounds tough? Big words? But this is REMARKABLY easy (most of the time) and here are the steps.

Virtual Box - Software that pretends it's a machine!

(I am certainly not an expert in this and, with some quick "Googling," you can read blogs from people that are! I actually started with visualization using VMWARE but, after Oracle bought Sun, I just went to "eating our own dog food" (an expression born from the idea of a company using its own software). I am sure if you are set on using VMWARE or something else, this advice should still work.)

For us, the starting point is here.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/virtualbox/downloads/index.html

Virtual Box is software that emulates the hardware of a PC. It is "Freely available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris x-86 platforms:" (from the site). To my knowledge and in my experience, it cleanly installs (and uninstalls) and is an excellent way to "try before you buy" or, in this case, create an environment to play with technology you could never afford in the real world!
Once you install it, Oracle has a site with several VMs to choose from. They add (and remove) these over time so what I am pointing out now could easily be different from what you would see when you go to the site.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/community/developer-vm/index.html

Oracle Virtual Appliances - one to fit your needs

For me, there are three really cool ones that I spend time learning from.

Database App Development VM

It is a "Hands-on Database Application Development"
It comes with the following ...

• Oracle Linux 6.5
• Oracle Database 12c Release 1 Enterprise Edition
• Oracle XML DB
• Oracle SQL Developer
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
• Oracle Application Express
• Hands-On-Labs (accessed via the Toolbar Menu in Firefox)

As for your PC, you need 2 GB of Ram (the more you can allocate, the better) and 15GB of hard-drive space.At the time of this writing, the URL for this VM was here -

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/databaseappdev-vm-161299.html

This particular VM came out in Feb of 2014. It's predecessor has been a favourite one for me for years! It is all you need to start getting ramped up on this stuff.

If you are a little more savvy, there are two other ones that are quite cool.

Oracle Business Intelligence SampleAppV309

This is a " Sample Application (SampleApp) for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition is a comprehensive collection of examples designed to demonstrate Oracle BI capabilities and design best practices." - It is an example of OBIEE! (and related BI technologies)
It comes with the following ...

• Oracle Linux 5.9 (el5PAE)
• OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 (includes OBIEE Essbase/EPM Suite)
• Mobile Application Designer
• Oracle Database 12c
• Endeca Server 7.5.1
• Oracle Big Data Connectors
• Endeca Studio 3.0
• Endeca Integrator 3.0
• Oracle APEX Listener 2.0.1
• Oracle Applicatio Express 4.2
• R-2.15.1, ORE 1.3
• Jrockit 1.6.0.37, Java SE Development Kit 7u17
• Oracle SQL Developer 3.2.20
• EPM 11.1.2.2 Standalone (Offered as a separate download for the SampleApp OTN page)

There is some dated stuff on here (like Oracle SQL Developer 3.2!!!) but they do have a 12c database!
You need a bit more robust PC for this, though. You need at least 8GB of "real memory" (that's if you are firing the entire VM's software up) and during the install, a whopping 84GB of space. It takes a significant time to download all the bits, unzip them and install them. But, the reward is, when you are finished, you have a great playground LOADED with BI Tech Goodies!At the time of this writing, the URL for this VM was here -

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

Oracle Big Data Lite VM

Very cool idea. Basically, this is a fully deployed "Netflix" kind of application ("Oracle MoviePlex") which not only comes with a completley faked out version of the application but all the data and tech behind it. There is TONNES to learn from in here!

• Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.4
• Oracle Database 12c Release 1 Enterprise Edition (12.1.0.1)
• Cloudera’s Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH4.5)
• Cloudera Manager 4.8
• Cloudera Enterprise Technology, including Cloudera RTQ (Impala 1.2.3) and Cloudera RTS (Search 1.1)Oracle Big Data Connectors 2.4
• Oracle NoSQL Database Enterprise Edition 12cR1 (2.1.54)
• Oracle Data Integrator 12cR1
• ... and more

The Technical Requirements are - 

• Dedicate 2 cores, 5 GB memory and 30GB disk space to the virtual machine
• Install will require ~40GB disk space including temporary files

So, again, this is not for the faint of heart! But it is quite a treat if you get it up.

The URL for that is here.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/bigdata-appliance/oracle-bigdatalite-2104726.html

These three can keep you going for MONTHS! Certainly worth trying out.