According to this new note over on PHP Magazine's site today, there are plans from EnterpriseDB to launch an "Open Source Oracle Compatible RDBMS" for public consumption.

Built on the open source PostgreSQL database, EnterpriseDB 2005 is an enterprise database product, which the EnterpriseDB Corporation says is similar in functionality and scope to products from Oracle - but is available for a fraction of the cost. Using SQL syntax and data types compatible with Oracle, the open source RDBMS system includes a core engine, EDB Studio, a graphical console for developers and DBAs, and EDB Connectors, which provide access to EDB from a variety of programming languages and APIs including Java's JDBC, PHP, Perl and Python.

For anyone out there wanting to go with something like Oracle but balking at the price, you might keep an eye out for this and see what it's like.

Oh, and this note is always a good thing to see (from their site): EDB2005 is free for development, test, and low-volume production. Simple and inexpensive pricing applies for enterprise production usage. During the beta period, everyone receives free support.