Free desktop client for Oracle? [closed]

Question

Which is the best Open Source free client for querying an Oracle database? It may additionally support other databases (MySQL, Postgres etc), since our development environment often requires switching between different databases.

Answer 1

I have been using the Oracle SQL Developer (because it's free) and at first hated every minute spent with it. I am still having weird problems with graphics, as it's running on Vista and there seems to be some sort of graphics driver problem (luckily, no-one can get it to run properly on Vista, so I am not alone in this), which makes its use quite cumbersome.

Nevertheless I had to learn how to cope with it and now I must admit it's a neat and very useful tool (NOT ONLY) for querying an Oracle database. I suppose you could query other DBs from it as well, for instance I have used it to query some legacy MS Access DBs, and so I believe you could query SQL Server as well.

You can do data migrations, imports/exports, see OWA output, and allegedly also DEBUG (step through, set breakpoints, etc...) PL/SQL code, but I haven't tried this. I have been fine with sqlplus command-line so far :) Do give it a try, and don't let the Vista-related graphics problems give you a wrong impression :)

Answer 2

If by open-source you really mean free, then Oracle SQL Developer is free. However it is not open-source. It is fully supported though, we use it where I work all the time.

If you're interested you can go here for a good starting reference on its features.