Hi Bal,
Thanks.
You can find all the available editions of Oracle 9i
here, unfortunately I don't see any edition available for Win ME, but there is one, Personal Edition, for win 98 - thats what I have installed.
So unless you have win 2000/NT/XP Pro/Unix, Personal edition is the only option left with win 98.
There are not may books available on 9i, but some are already published and soon market will be flooded with many books on 9i. Books for first three exams are available at
amazon) from Oracle Press (I dont see a good review for Oracle pree books from its readers, thats why I bought the Oracle DBA kit from Sybex, believe me it was wonderful).
I have no idea about the courses available from oracle university, infact I didnt see any reason for myself to do these courses - anyway voucher cost just $100 (after 20% discount if you register at OTN).
I found Admin and Architecture to be the toughest and Net Admin to be the easiest.
I have very little experience with Oracle or any other database (few SQL statements and Form4.5). I also started from zero, and because of the lack of available resources for 9i , I opt for 8i and then WILL upgarde soon(its like I have to pass 6 exams instead of 4)
Hope it helps, if you have further questions, please do let me know.
Regards,