Operating System Choice

[volpunter]

eusdaiki, I can only repeat myself: I never talked down Linux as system for specialized applications, quite the opposite, I praised Linux as system that allows for easier replication, distributed computing, and for low latency data feed purposes, among many others. I think it should be clear to you that my above post was not meant to be desperate but to be ironic. (well half, ironic, seeing the most popular Linux distro add USB stick support (or cosmetics around it) and absolute basic user management in 2014 is poor to just say the least).

Re Nasdaq, I posted a link earlier, and I was never the one who claimed that only the SIP runs on Windows server and I also never claimed that SIP and the central order matching book is the same. My posts have been picked apart, injected with wrong citations and wrongly paraphrased.

Re Redhat, I again repeat myself, I was mostly ironic about Linux Mint (knowing it is targeting retail, whereas Redhat is targeting the corporate sector). I have started programming over 30 years ago, and programmed in Turbo Pascal on an Apple IIe, Assembler, later C++ when some who seem to be the know-it-alls (but then miraculously disappear when confronted with factual evidence) were not even born. So please take my previous post with a huge grain of salt, I thought it was perfectly clear that i was being cynical, obviously any linux version is able to handle USB connectivity.

I personally do not think Linux is just yet ready for broad retail user appeal, linux has its appeal when it comes to raw computing, distributed computing, low level network access, basically very little need for abstraction. But I highly doubt aside 1-2 users on this website that anyone else would benefit from Linux more than from Windows. Heck, I do not try to convert anyone, but I vigorously defend claims that MS is done, that they are not flexible (if any tech company, they have shown possibly most flexibility by completely departing from their closed MS-centric ways of thinking and embraced open-source projects in the multiple dozens (forced and also because they see the benefits). For most every tasks for people on this website a commodity Windows machine is way sufficient. So, is a basic linux box. I never denied that. I just take issue with bullshit such as C# being by definition slower than C++, or Windows not being able to run any conceivable scripting language (I can run Ruby and any scripting language under the sun on Windows, I run Redis servers on Windows, I run an Erlang server on Windows) , I have no idea what issue people really have with Windows.



Cheers.

P. S. : And before someone else holds the following against me as well, I am fully aware that most Linux distros also handle multi monitor support (how well is an entirely different question)

Volpunter,

The ad-hominem fallacy in your previous post makes your argument seem desperate.
And I can tell you that not everyone talking on this thread fits your stereotype, I designed a large trading system that currently runs on 3 datacenters (HK,LO,NJ) accesing most international stock markets... And it runs on Linux servers with a windows front end.

About the Nasdaq matching engine, as far as I know it runs on Gentoo, if you have evidence that it runs MSWIN by all means post it here (i couldn't dig anything from google in that direction, so I am seriously curious about it)
As stated above, SIP is not a matching engine, it is the TOS aggregator that is used for REG-NMS compliance (this is why the SIP outage halted trading)

Linux Mint? Really? That's your frame of reference? Try looking at a distro from the redhat family (RedHat, Centos, Scientific, Fedora) or from the SUSE family. Mint (and the Ubuntu family for that matter) are popular because of eye candy... and try reading the stuff you posted about USB slowly, the added some feature to make it nicer or something they didn't "started supporting USB" as you seem to imply -- you can run mint FROM a USB stick!!

You're talking about everyone else being biased, but maybe you need to look in the mirror.

 

[eusdaiki]

I personally do not think Linux is just yet ready for broad retail user appeal, linux has its appeal when it comes to raw computing, distributed computing, low level network access, basically very little need for abstraction. But I highly doubt aside 1-2 users on this website that anyone else would benefit from Linux more than from Windows.

In general, I can agree with that statement.
Which I think is the main point of the last 11 pages.
Signing off from this one, happy trading.

 

[aqtrader]

you perfectly summarized the mob here, to which you apparently belong.
Most Linux users here sound agitated at MS and desperate for success in trading. I venture to bet that a minority truly comes from the professional programming background having worked on Linux boxes, ....

Right, I belong to the mob. The mob of Linux and open source community is growing while MS is shrinking. IBM, Intel, Oracle, Apple, Google, FB, Qualcomm, Cisco, NYSE tech, JPM, and too many to name, belong to this mob which currently is headed by multiple influential organizations such as Linux Foundation. The world has changed and is still changing. Living in the past does not help you. MS needs also change to adopt the new world. Not all in MS is blind. They also start to send engineers to participate into Linux Foundation technical meetings. Time to open eyes.

 

[MRBRETTONWOODS]

I stick to my conclusion that most everyone who touts Linux in this thread has issues that go WAY BEYOND just a sense of which OS serves them better.

Why do you continue to post if you said that you would not be posting anymore?

Stackoverflow has no relevance, because it doesn't account for embedded device programmers. C is still very popular there, that's mostly for custom engineering jobs, and it doesn't claim to be a survey. It's just a list of the popularity of languages in general, including matlab, that doesn't mean matlab is used in the same areas as C is, for instance. And TIOBE is recognized as an objective benchmark, not stackoverflow.

What do you mean I have not provided proof? I showed you the link, NASDAQ ITSELF CLAIMED that it completely abandoned its old platform (though you have not provided proof that this fossil system was windows, I would be interested to know if the garbage was, before it was abandoned), to adopt instinet INET, which is linux. On the other hand, you have no link linking NASDAQ to windows other than an intentionally crippled SIP platform (for regulations, not at all related to the core system), which is being abandoned out of necessity anyway.

http://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticl...inth-year-during-r-a-347185.html#.U3zo9Ny95q0

"NASDAQ official closing prices (NOCPs) determined by the NASDAQ Closing Cross
are widely used throughout the industry, by Russell Investments, Standard &
Poor's, Dow Jones, and mutual funds across the country. The NASDAQ Closing
Cross mechanism provides market participants with transparency and consistent
prices with the dissemination of imbalances, indicative and likely clearing
prices every five seconds via the Net Order Imbalance Indicator. NASDAQ OMX's
INET technology platform processes accurate closing prices for the industry in
microseconds.

"The NASDAQ Closing Cross generated accurate closing prices during one of the
heaviest trading sessions of the year due to the speed and market integrity of
NASDAQ OMX's INET technology platform," said Eric Noll, Executive Vice
President of Transaction Services U.S. and U.K. at NASDAQ OMX."

It's like you really do live in a time-warp, nothing of what you understand of linux, is valid. For what it's worth, there are ipod and android syncing capabilities (through the MTP protocol) in music players like amarok, and syncing is also available for IOS devices:

http://www.libimobiledevice.org/



You can chose whatever OS you like, however, MS is dying, even the CHAIRMAN OF MICROSOFT claims this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/28/john_thompson_on_microsoft_culture/

"I would argue that there are some attributes to Microsoft today that do look vaguely like IBM circa 1990," Thompson said in an interview with Fortune published today. "The Windows monopoly is in fact under attack, and therefore we're going to have to change or think differently about the management systems and the associated culture of the company as time goes on."

 

[2rosy]

nasdaq runs linux http://lwn.net/Articles/411064/

 

[vicirek]

lol, I already assumed you totally missed the topic of this thread, at least you also admit that now.

I am saying many corporations have a solid reason why to partner with Microsoft for many years to come.

No i did not miss it: Few years back question which operating system to choose would be more obvious and no discussion would be necessary. Today everything is changing and changing for good.

I repeat again. It is the right time to reconsider OS choices and start long term planning because of changes in Windows programming and licensing model.

Second consideration is proliferation of quality open source and wide use of programming standards that make choice of OS less important.

Before MS had fixed big targets like Netscape, Java, Flash Player, Oracle. Now they have hundreds of nimble fast moving targets and cannot do much about it.

One of the strategy is to secure latest possible OS be it 8, 9 or Win next with support for the next X years as long as it is still fully featured system and then see if Microsoft will come back to earth and if not then there is time to move on.

Many corporations are confused what is the future of Windows operating system, their licensing and costly upgrade cycle and have reservations about it but often do not have much choice. In fact many are moving or already moved to vendor independent software.

On the Linux/Windows front Linux is getting there to become a challenge in consumer space as well. What is Android, Mac and other iterations of OS anyway and the total numbers are not marginal.

If MS will make more mistakes real challenger to their dominance on desktop may soon emerge.

 

[MRBRETTONWOODS]

No i did not miss it: Few years back question which operating system to choose would be more obvious and no discussion would be necessary. Today everything is changing and changing for good.

I repeat again. It is the right time to reconsider OS choices and start long term planning because of changes in Windows programming and licensing model.

Second consideration is proliferation of quality open source and wide use of programming standards that make choice of OS less important.

Before MS had fixed big targets like Netscape, Java, Flash Player, Oracle. Now they have hundreds of nimble fast moving targets and cannot do much about it.

One of the strategy is to secure latest possible OS be it 8, 9 or Win next with support for the next X years as long as it is still fully featured system and then see if Microsoft will come back to earth and if not then there is time to move on.

Many corporations are confused what is the future of Windows operating system, their licensing and costly upgrade cycle and have reservations about it but often do not have much choice. In fact many are moving or already moved to vendor independent software.

On the Linux/Windows front Linux is getting there to become a challenge in consumer space as well. What is Android, Mac and other iterations of OS anyway and the total numbers are not marginal.

If MS will make more mistakes real challenger to their dominance on desktop may soon emerge.

Even the chairman of Microsoft acknowledges this:

The CHAIRMAN OF MICROSOFT claims this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/28/john_thompson_on_microsoft_culture/

"I would argue that there are some attributes to Microsoft today that do look vaguely like IBM circa 1990," Thompson said in an interview with Fortune published today. "The Windows monopoly is in fact under attack, and therefore we're going to have to change or think differently about the management systems and the associated culture of the company as time goes on."

So, basically, there really isn't a point to this discussion, other than his trolling.

 

[vicirek]

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.

How do you forcefully monetize HTML5, JavaScript, C/C++, Linux etc. being either open standards or come with open source licensing?

 

[vincegata]

And here something funny I came across:

Note, this is the most popular Linux Distro by many measures, Linux Mint 16, check out the "NEW FEATURES" they came out with (and remember this is a company that is in business since 2006 at least, so, in 8 years of work they are now able to present:

+ Sound Effects
Cinnamon is now able to play sounds when you perform common events such as closing windows, switching workspaces etc...

+ Better User Management
A new applet was introduced to let you easily perform session and account related tasks (leaving, switching users, disabling notifications, accessing settings...etc).

+ USB Stick support
A new tool was developed to easily format USB sticks to NTFS, FAT32 and ext4.

Please someone tell me that this is 2014!!! USB stick support? Lol, so much to Linux being ready for mainstream usage haha. Hey, in 2016 we can all expect to enjoy multi monitor support (sorry could not resist).

What a joke!!!




http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_petra_cinnamon_whatsnew.php

Cinnamon is a desktop (UI for Linux) that is being developed by Mint and it's supposed to resemble GNOME 2. They started developing it only a couple of years ago.

 

[volpunter]

Fact remains that MS already is making huge transitions into cloud apps with most its proprietary commercial software tools. Fact is also that it open-sourced many of its new projects. Fact is that the compiler innovations in .Net are so groundbreaking that in fact it will be possible to write faster applications than anyone could in native C++. Fact is also, that MS is embracing a lot of the new technologies such as HTML5, many of the JavaScript derivatives, and cautiously integrates them. They are understandably careful to fully integrate because, for example, HTML5 is not even fully developed yet and lacks many important features (example, DRM in HTML5 is not yet working which is one reason why Netflix cannot yet stream HTML5 and still relies on Silverlight (which I admit is a total pain in the butt).

I disagree with a statement that MS looks today how IBM looked before its descent. I see a lot more agility and acceptance towards new technologies. But I also see a MS that intelligently wagers its investments and how far to integrate new, unproven technologies. The danger in today's development environment is that there are so many dislocated technologies and different standards out there that you have to patch them all together which hugely increases the potential points of failure.

I like some of MS's products, which includes their Windows 7 operating system. I also like Visual Studio, unarguably the most feature rich and most powerful IDE there is, even if you combine IDEs under any operating system. I like .Net (and I fully appreciate and understand why the Linux crowd does not use it, because it CANNOT use it ;-) (other than the half-baked Mono solution of course). I believe that Microsoft will lose more importance in the OS market (which I never denied) but will remain a strong force in the application development space. Will they succeed in re-innovating themselves? It remains to be seen, I believe yes. Even Apple has the same problem coming up now, they are way overrated in terms of innovative power at least as of today. They had huge past successes, but so had Bell Labs, IBM, MS, and many others. Their Apple TV Living room innovation is still nowhere to be seen and what else does Apple have up its sleeve? I think Google is the true innovator right now, they are working on so many diversified technologies that they are almost guaranteed to succeed in one or some of them. Microsoft's job is to either diversify away from its OS or to keep its OS meaningful. I would welcome a total and complete rewrite, by having a 2nd branch of developers work for several years on a complete re-write of the kernel. But this may be so costly that if they can identify potential technologies to invest in that promise a higher rate of return they may indeed look to replace their OS with a new blockbuster. Who knows. I do not and I am sure most everyone else does not know either.

The mobile train, I am afraid has long departed and I do not think they will be able to catch up anymore. Not that this is not a very meaningful segment right now and in the years to come but I believe if we look back 20 years later we will all smile at how important we thought the mobile space really is. Think about it, people will not be productive on 9 inch screens, much less so on 4 inch screens, nobody will do serious spreadsheet or word processing word on an ipad. Nor will serious applications run on smart watches, who will even be able to check their Facebook or chat messages on a screen as tiny as a watch display? And most importantly, who is actually ever gonna pay for the valuations attached to most mobile Apps and their corporations? Nobody! Ask a consumer to shell out another 50 dollars a month for this and that app? I don't think so. The whole mobile hype will last exactly this long: Until the moment when corporations actually perform research into their ad spending online and when they figure out how little incremental value it actually adds to their business model. Very soon even the poorest person in the forests in Central China will know what an LV handbag is and that the new iPhone version was released. This is the point in time when marginal value for ad spending will turn negative and when the first large corporations will significantly reduce ad investments on mobile apps, Facebook, internet, ...well, none of the above I can backup with facts, and hence it is just my view of the world going forward. But I am pretty sure the internet technology sector is gonna stare into the abyss in the not so distant future and valuations will be halved, cut into 1/3, 1/4, and even less for some companies. Kings Soft, a company with one single game out there fetching multi billion dollar valuations? I don't think so, this is a company that is destined to go bankrupt among many others.