Virtualization1

A brief hijack please.

Is there a big advantage to running on Linux for day trading? Am I going to get more speed, faster processing?

I know the lower virus expectation, anti Gates motto.

I have read up on Linux/Wine, etc. I am not an IT guy but far from Village Idiot when it comes to tech. :D

I ask because a trader I know instead went for the most hp under the hood to compensate for windows 7 64 bit.

TIA

Dan
 
Is there a big advantage to running on Linux for day trading? Am I going to get more speed, faster processing?
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Simple answer: no.

It may use less memory (depending whether you can run in core mode or not), but that is basically irrelevant by todays memory.

IO, CPU etc. do not change. The OS overhead is not exactly big - so even it Linux would be "twice at fast" that may simply mean reducing the overhead from 1% to 1/2% - not making a significant difference.
 
Quote from NetTecture:

Simple answer: no.

It may use less memory (depending whether you can run in core mode or not), but that is basically irrelevant by todays memory.

IO, CPU etc. do not change. The OS overhead is not exactly big - so even it Linux would be "twice at fast" that may simply mean reducing the overhead from 1% to 1/2% - not making a significant difference.
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Thanks much.
 
Quote from dandxg:
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...anti Gates motto...
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He is already out so you are safe ;)

If you want to be a system administrator for every Linux program out there you are installing then go with Linux.

Linux was pushed by the big hardware companies like IBM, HP, etc. as a way to sell more iron.

The open source angle is also misleading - do you have the time to dig in the source? Who has?

Recently in other thread I read about a new columnar DB - open source again. I dig deeper - to get the manual you have to pay $80. What is free? Without much documentation you are on yourself. For enterprise customers they are selling support - $10K/y without phone, $15K with phone support. This is extreme because it is DB but it shows the trend to mislead customers that open source = free and better.
 
Quote from NetTecture:

That actually IS the issue when you talk about performance gains through better IO caching in virtualization.

The 64 bit host has access to more ram to cache more efficiently, that the terribly outdated 32 bit operating system you are running can not even see, so it can not use it for caching.

Any particular reason you are stuck on a TERRIBLY suboptimal 32 bit XP? I am just upgrading my complete stations to Windows 7 and was using 64 bit Vista for ages without any problems.

64 bit "native" kills most problems one can have with 32 bit (which, agreeable, imposes some really bad limits for certain kinds of operations).
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I have to use 32 bit XP because of software compatibility. I cannot use Vista x64 or Windows 7.

Could you please reply to my questions?

"I'm not sure to understand your reasonament: would you suggest or not to use the Ubuntu 64 as host in a VMware environment instead of XP Pro x64? Or it's the same since XP Pro x64 is enough efficient to compete with its caching vs. Ubuntu 64?

The client/s will be Windows XP Pro x86 - 32 bit, anyway - with 1 or 2 Gb RAM allocated."

Thanks.
 
I have to use 32 bit XP because of software compatibility. I cannot use Vista x64 or Windows 7.
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This makes ZERO sense. Really.

WHat software would that be?

64 bit windows can run 32 bit software perfectly.

Now, to answer your question: better IO performance due to better caching (due to more memory available) is basically the ONLY possible gain.

Whether that is relevant for you depends.... on the software. FOr trading, I do not really see that relevant. Not to the degree you need.

If you ahve an IO problem in trading (because for example you record complete exchange data feeds), then the cache wont help - you need to get a proper high end storage subsystem (like I have - actually I run a SAS disc arraxy and have 8 velociraptors set up just to store the incoming data).

Btw., using a Ubunutu 64 bit host to IN A VMWARE ENVIRONMENT to run another virtualization layer is bluntly stupid. If you ever get it running. You can NOT run a hypervisor in another one - there simply is only one hardware lever around on the processor. So the second virtualization is going to be software based - have fun with that crappy performance ;)

Otherwise, seriously, what crap software do you run? I mean, seriously - not being able to upgrade from an operating system that is so outdated means the software has to be the biggest pile of crap around and never updated. 64 bit windows runs 32 bit applications perfectly, with the exception of drivers - but trading software is not a driver.
 
Quote from NetTecture:


Now, to answer your question: better IO performance due to better caching (due to more memory available) is basically the ONLY possible gain.
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Ok... so again: it's better to use Ubuntu 64 caching system or XP Pro 64 caching system in order to run a XP Pro 32 bit clients under VMware environment? Ot it's totally indifferent since the XP Pro x64 caching IO is similar to Ubuntu 64 in terms of IO performance supposing there is enough free RAM?
 
How sure are you caching makes ANY difference?

Remember, caching is only for IO spikes ;) Or permanent IO that actually FITS in the cache. Now, that is a lot if you have a 64 gigabyte RAM harware below, but somehow i doubt that.
 
A simple question: should I need to run Windows 32 bit OSes guests, is there any benefit running them from a Windows XP Pro X64 instead of x86?
 
A simpler question: should I need to run Windows 32 bit OSes guests, is there any benefit running them in a Windows XP Pro X64 host instead of x86?
 
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