Switching to Linux from Win10

JackRab · Oct 30, 2017

hajimow said:
I have 2 laptops. Both Dell XPS17Z and XPS 14Z. Both are 5 years old and both have I7 second generation processor. 17 inch one is ON 24/7 and 14 inch which I carry is always in hibernate mode (I do not turn it off) and I had no problem with speed. Maybe bringing up the OS takes long time and when it is ON, it works fine. Am I right?
When I want to buy a laptop, I do not buy a brand. I buy the specification. I do not need the highest spec as I might not need it and I do not want to spend money on something that I will not use it. Now I believe you have enough info to try stuff and maybe buy a newer laptop (something around $700 to $1000).

No... it's very slow on just about everything. Getting TWS up and running takes ages. Getting into Chrome takes ages... it's like it has an anker being dragged behind it.

I'm right there with you regarding brand vs specs. I'd rather direct the money you will pay to the marketing department of Toshiba or HP to a better spec setup.

I've got an ASUS i3-3217u 1.8Ghz 4gb ram... It might be just a p.o.s.... starting to look like it.

I'm having troubles installing Linux, the boot loader doesn't want to go anywhere... getting close to buying a new one (pretty excited about that actually

)!

hajimow · Oct 31, 2017

sle said:
I have made the switchto MacBook Pro from a similarly priced laptop (one of the fancy Sony ones). I will never go back. It’s just
a. so well made, down to tiny details
b. SW/HW is properly integrated
c. gives you both the stability of *nix and application range of a retail operating system

Many people have your belief and you are not alone. Most probably your smarphone is also an Iphone as going with MAC pushes you to change other devices chain OS.

hajimow · Oct 31, 2017

JackRab said:
No... it's very slow on just about everything. Getting TWS up and running takes ages. Getting into Chrome takes ages... it's like it has an anker being dragged behind it.

I'm right there with you regarding brand vs specs. I'd rather direct the money you will pay to the marketing department of Toshiba or HP to a better spec setup.

I've got an ASUS i3-3217u 1.8Ghz 4gb ram... It might be just a p.o.s.... starting to look like it.

I'm having troubles installing Linux, the boot loader doesn't want to go anywhere... getting close to buying a new one (pretty excited about that actually )!

I do not say your laptop is old but definitely under-spec for what you are doing. 4gb memory is just barely enough for Windows. I would go with 8 and the ideal case would be 12 and over 12 would be waste of money unless you also run Matlab simulation or do FPGA/ASIC synthesis and P&R. I would say go with a better laptop and use this just to browse.
One last test you can do is to remove any malware and virus detection software and reboot it and see if it helps.

sle · Oct 31, 2017

hajimow said:
Many people have your belief and you are not alone. Most probably your smarphone is also an Iphone as going with MAC pushes you to change other devices chain OS.

Unfortunately, I am forced to own two separate cell phones - one is a iPhone provided to me by the employer and the other is a personal Android. But yes, my next personal phone will probably be an iPhone.

Haze · Oct 31, 2017

Love my Mac and will never ever go back but don't get me started on thousand dollar I phones, what a waste of money.

Back to the OP. Since you clearly have no desire to operate from a Mac, I would suggest upgrading and using one computer strictly for trading. I assume more people out there are like me and have a dedicated trading computer. I don't even open emails or any other BS with it, if I'm useing it I'm trading.

sle · Oct 31, 2017

Haze said:
Love my Mac and will never ever go back but don't get me started on thousand dollar I phones, what a waste of money.

Well, you don’t think you’re being offended by the round number more than anything else? If I recall correctly, top of the line Samsung is listed for 899 at the moment.

JackRab · Oct 31, 2017

Haze said:
Love my Mac and will never ever go back but don't get me started on thousand dollar I phones, what a waste of money.

Back to the OP. Since you clearly have no desire to operate from a Mac, I would suggest upgrading and using one computer strictly for trading. I assume more people out there are like me and have a dedicated trading computer. I don't even open emails or any other BS with it, if I'm useing it I'm trading.

I have... I've got a 6 screen setup on a i7 3770K 3.5Ghz with 16Gb Ram... that's fine.. currently running Windows 10 and no problems.

The problem is my laptop, which incidentally when I'm stuck at home I use as my trading laptop. And I know it's a piece of shit... but I'd like to see if I can extend it's life on Linux. Which at the moment means it's on life-support, since I don't seem to get Linux up and running. I might pull the plug on this doozy and call the time of death 2 years ago, when I installed Windows 10

R.I.P.... P.O.S....

JackRab · Oct 31, 2017

Great.. I finally got Linux working!

I initially had issues getting the GRUB boot loader installed, but that was because I was following what most people online had suggested to do: not connect to internet and turn off wifi... seemed that was the culprit, I needed to connect to the internet.

Anyway, I will install Interactive brokers TWS later tonight and see if it's running better.

Simples · Oct 31, 2017

JackRab said:
All good suggestions, but I already do that regularly... I don't have that many programs on my laptop anymore, just trading platform, MS office... that's about it. I almost daily do CCleaner and SuperanitSpyware... and now and then run Malwarebytes.

I'm on to the point that it's definitely Windows fault, hahaa... if I do a clean install... it runs fine for about 1-2 weeks... then it starts to significantly slow. Crap... I'll see how this ends up and if that doesn't improve I will let everyone know what new laptop I got Laptop is not the main trading station anyway.

CCleaner was serving malware for some time..

HobbyTrading · Oct 31, 2017

JackRab said:
Great.. I finally got Linux working!

I initially had issues getting the GRUB boot loader installed, but that was because I was following what most people online had suggested to do: not connect to internet and turn off wifi... seemed that was the culprit, I needed to connect to the internet.

Anyway, I will install Interactive brokers TWS later tonight and see if it's running better.

Which version of Linux have you installed on your laptop?
Installing TWS should not be very complicated: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=17714 It comes with its own version of Java, so you don't need to download any Java software.