Looks like Oracle is feeling the pressure from the free DBs like Postgres and MySQL.

From the Oracle webpage: Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that’s free to develop, deploy, and distribute.

Link.

Looks like the maximum DB size is 4GB and it uses only one processor and at most one GB RAM.

Having a free Oracle DB is good for the projects where one is forced to use an Oracle DB.