Re: Difference between Oracle OCI and thin Driver?

There's also the Oracle Instant Client (multi-platform) that (in Windows) installs by copying the folder to the PC and setting an environment variable (in Windows, add the folder to PATH). You can use TNSNAMES or not (you can use a connect string pointing directly to the server). If you use TNSNAMES, you need to add the TNS_ADMIN environment variable pointing to the folder containing the TNSNAMES.ORA file (I used same folder as the instant client). So far, this looks pretty good. It's a much simpler install (you don't need to use the Universal Installer) and removal is simply deleting the folder and removing the variables.

There's a little more work involved if you use ODBC (just a batch file to install the driver), but that's MS's fault, not Oracle's.

Here's a download link:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/oci/instantclient/index.html

... and the FAQ:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/ic-faq.html Jesse Received on Thu Jan 20 2005 - 12:49:57 CST