I've gotten a few mainstream apps running under RedHat 7.1 (Seawolf) with Wine (
www.winehq.org), and there are a few native apps for Gnu/Linux, such as the very free little Eiffel-MAS (
http://eiffel-mas.sourceforge.net/), but I'm not sure about the availability of good commercial grade apps yet.
I've emailed Equis (makers of Metastock) about porting their software to Linux, and they were open to the idea. I talked to the people at Worden Bros, who make TC2000, and they said they've gotten lots of requests and were considering it. Makes great sense for them, since they're more interested in selling data to you monthly for the rest of your life than selling you software once... I emailed the Tradestation guys, who weren't open at all and seemed insulted by the idea! But then again, I'm lucky I *got* a response from them. I've had a few bad experiences with hostile staff working there.
If anyone else is interested in Linux, please email your favorite application companies to show your support for a Linux version of their apps. They don't know if there's a potential market there without hearing from you - yes, YOU!
Right now, I've got the AmiBroker (
www.amibroker.com) demo running under Wine. I'm just testing to make sure everything is working properly, and then I'll be buying a real copy by the end of next week. So far, it looks good.
Unless someone can suggest a good quality technical analysis charting app that works natively under Linux?