Learning Oracle for the First Time -- where to start???

Hi folks,

I'd like to start working with and learning Oracle at home for no other reason then to get more knowledgeable with the platform and become a bit more marketable in the future. I have some questions though:

I noticed on the Oracle website I can download Oracle 10g. I'm assuming this is a demo or eval copy, but how long does it last? And how is it limited?
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle10g/index.html

I have some books on Oracle 8i, but will these work if I'm using 10g? I'd rather not go out and buy all new books, but I will if needed. Also is 10g the latest version?

My plan is to work with Oracle on Linux, but is Oracle on Linux and Windows different enough where I should learn both?

What books would you guys suggest? I have the following books already:
Wrox: Oracle Expert one-on-one by Thomas Kyte Wiley: Oracle8i Admin and Management
Oracle Press/Osborne: Oracle8i Backup and Recovery Handbook by Velpuri and Adkoli
O'Reilly: Oracle PL/SQL Programming
And the little O'Reilly Oracle PL/SQL book

These are all on Oracle 8i... so should I stick with learning 8i now, or move to 10g -- which given this should I get new books for 10g or is it close enough to 8i to use the 8i books?

Thanks for any insight or ideas. I want to learn all major aspects of Oracle, from querying data, writing SQL statements, ODBC, report writing, and management (backup/recover, fault taulerance, and clustering if possible).

Take care,

Ringo Received on Thu Nov 04 2004 - 09:35:52 CST