Better Performance with Oracle SQL Developer in Ubuntu Linux

Having switched to Ubuntu recently on my work machine I have been hooking up to our databases using Oracle's SQL Developer. One major issue that I have had is that sometimes SQL Developer would get hung while attempting to the databases. The connecting status dialog would pop up, but it would never actually connect.

It would usually be solved by restarting SQL Developer a few times, but it got to be rather annoying. I decided to devote a little time to trying to find a solution for this little annoyance and I believe I may have cured my SQL Developer connection woes by changing to the OCI/Thick JDBC Driver.

1. In SQL Developer go to Tools > Preferences to open the Preferences menu.
   
   
2. Expand the Database section and click Advanced Parameters.
   
   
3. Then check the box labeled "Use OCI/Thick driver".
   
   
4. Restart SQL Developer