It seems Oracle 11g introduces a difference between count(*) and count(1). The way this happens is just the opposite of what I was thinking would happen. NB: I ran my test using “11.1.0.6 32bits” on Ubuntu Linux 7.04 (Feisty) which is not officially supported¹, and which has already lead me to some unexpected behaviors. If this difference with count() is really the 11g way and not buggy behavior related to the Ubuntu install, I’m glad to have found it.

Here’s what you can do to observe (or confirm or dispute) this.

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Note: I have now published “Installing Oracle 11g on Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)”

Note: This page focuses on Ubuntu installs. Oracle has published a web page for successfully installing Linux on unsupported platforms that you may find helpful.

I come from a MySQL background, and I have been given the challenge of learning Oracle. I can’t just play around with our customers’ databases, but I remembered that Paul Vallée said that there is nothing wrong with learning on company time. So I decided to install my own Oracle database, which I’ll be free to destroy in every way I can think of… and of course, free to bring it back to life. Recovering from crashes will probably be the most difficult part of my adventures in the Oracle world, but let’s take one step at a time, shall we?

Now, onto Oracle 11g (beta 5) on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). One little issue is that Ubuntu is unsupported by Oracle. So, through this text, we will trick the Oracle installer into thinking it’s actually running on a Red Hat box.

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