Operating System Choice

ANything I can do on Windows you can do on Linux? Really? What about the many non-Java and non-web applications (heck, Linux browsers often have severe issues to even render modern web-apps correctly). What about the tons of charting and other financial software applications? Bloomberg? Reuters? Broker applications? All run on Linux? Gaming catching up? Which games? Solitaire? How about modern graphics rendering libraries? Any WPF apps running on Linux? Silverlight rendering fine on Linux based browsers? Sorry but I heard just too many horror stories to be convinced what you are saying is bogus. Nasdaq runs on Windows servers and Windows OS, so do a number other exchanges.

And again there you go, Linux people either cater to the poor XP crowd or to CERN scientists, lol. And that by default means everyone in the middle benefits from Linux, right? Sorry but bad sales pitch. Supercomputers run Linux because the applications there are SEVERELY limited, and the capabilities are also extremely limited. The applications on such super computers are almost all entirely custom written and do not require sophisticated charting or graphics rendering (at least not in most cases and if then the app again is fully custom written), most such apps do hardcore number crunching. Not that any windows based app could not perform the same but if all you need is text based output and performing algorithm computations then yes, you go with a simple OS that offers a text based editor and thats it. You should at least be so honest as to say that those super computers do not run any of the Linux distros and Guis either for reasons of overhead. Linux/Unix is good at just running a quick install on 100 machines, connecting them through a network and then distribute workload. That in essence is exactly what super computers do. Take a look at the fastest lab within Japan, its a cluster of networked machines sharing workload.

vincegata said:
Maybe 15 years ago but that's so untrue nowadays. Aside of gaming, anything you do on Windows you can do on Linux. But even gaming is catching up.

NYSE, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange all run on Linux. London Stock Exchange ditched Windows & .NET in favor of Linux. Large Hadron Collider, also Linux. Top 500 super computers all run Linux or Unix. All these guys trust Linux more than Windows, that's pretty much made my choice.

However, if you can make money on Windows then use Windows.
More...
 
Did a search...

A 3-hour outage on NASDAQ was caused by a system running a windows server... interesting. Granted it was slightly outdated.

They mostly use Unix systems. HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, and now many are/have adopted linux as it is a cheaper alternative which they can freely modify to optimize the performance.

Also pretty much all the Google developers use OS X or Ubuntu if that says anything.

All I can say personally is for me, Windows is nowhere close to as stable as Unix and that includes the new Windows 8.
 
@volpunter: Valve, which accounts for 75% of digital games sales, ported its Steam engine to Linux. So yes, you can play Half-Life on Linux and many, not all, titles. They are currently porting Portal 2.
 
@volpunter: supercomputers are the servers optimized for crunching numbers and they run the tasks in parallel.
Why are they severely limited, because they do not have GUI? -- lol
 
volpunter said:
(heck, Linux browsers often have severe issues to even render modern web-apps correctly).
More...

Google Chrome and Chromium work just fine. Silverlight on Linux is called Moonlight, which is an open source port of Silverlight to Linux. But who needs that anyways? 95% of webservers run on Linux/Unix.
 
Volpunter,

it sounds like Windows is the way to go if you run a very targeted set of applications (like retail brokerage apps)


In my case, I don't see the point paying MSFT for a system that doesn't do much better than what I already have, and that is lagging behind on the HPC space as well as on the new technologies... and has an iterface that is a pain in the neck (win8... )

it's not just java that runs on linux.
python, php, c, c++, matlab, fortran all seem to work just fine (they're actually natively supported! -- go figure)...
and regarding the "linux browsers" are you refering to Chrome, firefox and Chromium? even when I run windows systems the first thing I do is install Chrome...


it sounds like windows works just fine for you, and you can always throw money at any performance issues... plus you're comfortable using VisualStudio, so by all means stay on windows. If it ain't broken don't fix it...
but don't get all defensive just cause the tide is moving in the other direction, windows had a good run... but the market is moving the other way since a few years back :)
 
eusdaiki said:
it sounds like windows works just fine for you, and you can always throw money at any performance issues... plus you're comfortable using VisualStudio, so by all means stay on windows. If it ain't broken don't fix it...
but don't get all defensive just cause the tide is moving in the other direction, windows had a good run... but the market is moving the other way since a few years back :)
More...

Good observation that since few years back Open Source combined with proliferation of lightweight specialized frameworks takes computing world by storm and Microsoft is dumbfounded.

Microsoft erratic moves with Windows and uncertainty lingering about its future programming model, distribution and licensing does not help much either.

Windows is OK and for many users it is still way to go but proceed with caution and be prepared to jump the ship because who knows what surprise they will offer next time?

It is the right time to ask about choice of the OS and keeping current with new software trends because we are entering uncharted territory.
 
vincegata said:
@volpunter: NASDAQ is actually running gentoo Linux.

-> The central order book matching engine of Nasdaq as of today runs on Windows servers. And so do a number other exchanges, though, admittedly the largest ones, Tokyo Stock Exchange, NYSE, LSE, run on Linux. I never contested that fact I just wanted to show that Windows Server is way fast enough and stable enough and secure enough to run an incredibly liquid order matching engine on. Blaming Windows for any of the most recent system outages is not reflecting reality. Neither is anyone blaming Linux for the many mishaps of arrowheads at the TSE, for outages at the LSE or Deutsche Boerse.

@volpunter: supercomputers are the servers optimized for crunching numbers and they run the tasks in parallel.
Why are they severely limited, because they do not have GUI? -- lol

-> You misunderstood my point, I said the applications limit themselves to a very tightly defined space. If all you do is number crunching then you have no need for a terminal that is great at graphics rendering and great at supporting wide arrays of hardware and graphics components. All you need is a clean install of a text based OS, add hundreds of machines, distribute work and off you go. And you are wrong, supercomputers themselves are just an array of many individual machines that are networked together and intelligently share workload, no single machine parallelizes code to much extent.

Google Chrome and Chromium work just fine. Silverlight on Linux is called Moonlight, which is an open source port of Silverlight to Linux. But who needs that anyways? 95% of webservers run on Linux/Unix.

-> Sure there are browsers that work fine in Linux, all I am saying is that a whole lot of webapps are optimized to render on Browsers with Windows behind. Is it doable to watch Netflix on Linux? Sure, but you need a workaround, you need another fix here, another app there. This is my whole gripe with Linux, as long as apps, web or installs, are not natively targeting Linux it will not change: For most applications you need fixes here and there, which begs the point why you left Windows ;-)
More...
 
This post is such a heap of crap, you linger in the Genetic Programming thread and equally show very little to no fact based knowledge.

a) Really by storm? Then how come the hard-cold numbers speak a different language (numbers are as up-to-date as you could ever wished for): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
This clearly shows that the desktop world is in the firm grips of Windows, we do not even have to argue about it. Mobile obviously is more split between iOS and Android. Now on the server side, still more servers running Windows are sold than Linux servers. On the other hand only looking at publicly accessible servers, usage is about 50/50 split, which suggests that overall still there is a slight tendency towards Windows servers.

b) Windows has created its own best OS with Windows 7, ever. Windows 8 is targeting mobile (admittedly a first careful approach towards mobile but understable given their huge reliance and dependence on Windows OS), hence can hardly be considered the successor for Windows 7. And sure, every software firm in the world is thinking hard when and in what ways the world will run applications and share information without any OS in the future. It will come and trust me Microsoft is not the only one thinking hard about it. But their latest Office 365 rollout is excellent, its web-based (though still can be installed) and shows that microsoft is on top of the transition to web-based applications. So your worries are misplaced.

c) Linux is for 2 groups of people as of 2014: Programmers who by own personal conviction prefer to code on Linux, scientists, company web servers, company general computing.
On the other side are mostly poor retail guys who are still stuck in 2000-gimme-freebies-or-I-download-warez tunnel view mentality who think just because something is offered to them free of charge today, such as some Linux distros, it must be free forever. I think you will be in for a rude awakening when all the guys who put in thousands of work hours will look to monetize their work because nobody has a huge interest in supplying VICIREK with free stuff forever. I congratulate you that you are happy with your Linux install and that you got all your hardware working on your machine with the driver mess you certainly were in, and I congratulate you that you can program in a text editor on Linux and that you can debug by setting breakpoints and monitor variable value changes. I also congratulate you that you think this is the way forward. But suggesting Linux is a step forward in easing workload, in making tools we work with more pleasing to the eyes and simple to work with, that Linux is the solution to our problems is bullshit. You spend much more time on tweaking Linux to get it all work right than you ever would with a Windows 7 machine. And that even applies to expert computer users. So, I would reckon 80-90% of all Linux users on THIS WEBSITE are those with too little money in their pocket to get themselves a Windows OS version, to pay for couple other apps that go along with the practical use. If you are too cheap to pay for those then possibly Linux is your solution. I explicitly exclude power users who use Linux to run low latency algorithms on, to which you DEFINITELY do NOT belong.

vicirek said:
Good observation that since few years back Open Source combined with proliferation of lightweight specialized frameworks takes computing world by storm and Microsoft is dumbfounded.

Microsoft erratic moves with Windows and uncertainty lingering about its future programming model, distribution and licensing does not help much either.

Windows is OK and for many users it is still way to go but proceed with caution and be prepared to jump the ship because who knows what surprise they will offer next time?

It is the right time to ask about choice of the OS and keeping current with new software trends because we are entering uncharted territory.
More...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top