Dear- My laptop is too old, so that I am thinking to buy a new one. 1) Many laptops are equipped with Window10. Recently they do NOT provide driver for Linux and even for Window 7 that I am used to. How can I search models (like in amazon?) with drivers for Window 7 and Linux? 2) Anyone trade IB with Linux? Was there any problem? 3) Any other comments are welcomed.
1. Linux is compatible with most of the hardware. Even if you buy a windows, your laptop / desktop is linux compatible. 2. I have traded under IB in Sim mode so can't really tell you. But everything was working fine up to this point. Since it's Java it should work like a charm.
You can pretty much buy any random recent laptop and Linux will run on it. I run IB TWS and my own custom front-end software on both Linux and Windows with no problems. One of the saddest things is you can't buy an empty laptop (no OS) at least here in the US. You have to pay for MS Windows and then install Linux, throwing away money. Yes there are specialty manufacturers of empty laptops but they cost a fortune. It generally cheaper to just buy a Dell/HP/Asus at Costco with Windows and install Linux over top of it.
Why laptop? Laptops are warm, noisy, limited and slow. Forget the theoretical specs, everything on a laptop is underdimensioned compared to a proper stationary. Am very happy with gaming stationary with 2 monitors. 64 GB RAM has very rarely been filled, but very handy when you need to explore. Am more comfortable, both physically and requirements-wise, than when I tried to cram everything into beasts of laptops, that always seemed limited in more than one ways and getting too warm. Search for Linux-compatible laptops / laptops delivered with Linux on. You might need to try multiple distros in case one fails to detect all your hardware. Nowadays, I'd either go for Mint, Debian or Ubuntu, but many options out there. Realistically, probably need 2x hours to fix things compared to Windows, but it'll be yours to fix! However, you'll also get /4 the annoyances or less. I keep my Windows in zoo, VirtualBox VMs. Easy to backup full images. A proper stationary means I can comfortably run 2 VMs simultaneously (1 for dev, 1 for prod). This means my trading platform is contained in minimalistic and predictable way, but also isolated from me tinkering with the main OS. Don't get me wrong, if Ninjatrader ran on native Linux, I'd probably just run it there, so more a workaround with benefits. Plus, a good gaming PC easily runs all the Linux steam games. If your computer don't run Linux properly, make sure you can return it for full refund. Usually not a problem, but we are at mercy of our vendors here and need to adress the issues of open standards, heterogenous free markets and healthy competition. Avoid anything proprietary, like iOS, Android and its ilk, that may later compromise your choices.
Has anyone used a computer with Linux/Ubuntu for trading futures? I recently saw a thread with this firm mentioned (see link below). I'm looking for a new computer and wanted to know if such a system (non Windows 10) would work with various futures platforms. Any advice would be helpful, thanks. https://system76.com/
Quoting from a different message board: "I'd suggest Interactive Brokers. If you were looking for a platform which is not brokerage dependant I've got no ideas. But IB's TWS platform is Java-based, so it'll work on anything - even some toasters, if they've got the horsepower and a network card. They also have a browser-based java client as well.. I've not used it but it has a very similar feel... that's actually how they demo the TWS client." ------------------- "Nextrader is being built from the ground up so it’s not tied to any legacy architecture that weighs down other platforms such as TT’s X_TRADER®. It utilizes the same familiar user interface as X_TRADER®, but with a Linux-based platform increasing the speed of operations multi-fold. " http://www.advantagefutures.com/futures-trading-software/
IB's TWS and Gateway and Think or Swim are both Java-based, therefore both work on Windows, Linux and Mac.
I have traded on Linux since W8 came out - currently Mint because it's so easy to set up and use but I've used many debian derivatives as I pursued a favourite. I run IB TWS as my broker interface and Sierra Chart supported by Wine for charting and order management. My trading is discretionary but some aspects are assisted by software I've written to enhance SC. As far as I can tell all SC capabilities are fully supported by Linux / Wine.
Recently, I found three models that I am interested. However, when I search their LINUX drivers at their webpage, NOTHING is related to LINUX. 1) Is is by chance? 2) With no official drivers given by manufacturer, can we trust whether LINUX Mint/Ubuntu give us ALL DRIVERS? LAN drivers might be popular, but I doubt 3840 resolusion for Geforce M940 (I may buy this first time) is ready for LINUX.