Purchasing MOS access

We've discussed this here before, but things change rapidly in the world of 
Oracle licensing so I'm here to find out the latest info before actually 
purchasing.

As I've said before, I work as an Oracle consultant for clients where the 
"real" DBAs are far above me in the organization and typically don't know I 
exist (and sometimes wouldn't be very happy about it if they did).  So most of 
the time I have no access to Metalink/MOS.  This isn't as large a liability for 
me as it is for most of you, as my use of Oracle is pretty light stuff, but 
there are times when it would come in very handy.  I also have no access to 
patches, which isn't good for my clients.  

So I want to buy the cheapest Oracle license I possibly can, just to get access 
to MOS and the ability to download patches.  At the moment, that appears to be 
Personal Edition, which will allow me to purchase only 1 "named user plus"  for 
$460 (SE One is cheaper per user, but requires a minimum purchase of 5).  It's 
a perpetual license, and support is $101.20 annually.  Or I could go as low as 
$92 for a one year license, with the same support cost.

I am not sure what support includes.  If it's patches, I need it.  If it's the 
ability to open a TAR I probably don't;  since most of my clients are running 
Enterprise Edition, and none of them are running Personal Edition, they 
probably wouldn't be wiling to help me anyway.

Does anyone know if purchasing this license will get me what I need?  Do I need 
the support?  Is there a better way to do this?

Seems like I can't be the only one in this position, but I see no signs of 
Oracle offering options other than buying my own license.

thanks,

janine--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l

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