Disregard the above comment. XP sp3 is working flawlessly now with Comodo Pro and AVG. I'm also using Avira Antivir (overkill - probably). XP is superior to Vista, and the comments in this thread only support what Microsoft knows. They've been trying to kill XP, and they've been getting nothing but pushback from consumers and hardware vendors. Maybe they should just trash Vista and advance XP since it's faster, less resource intensive, just as secure (despite claims to the contrary), compatible with more devices and drivers, and stable.
I whitelisted a Windows machine behind a Hotbrick just for trading... I had an epiphany, I realized that was what a windows machine can do, it can be a business machine behind a whitelisting firewall, anything else is just a disaster no matter what the industry says... with the whitelisting in place you don't need any antivirus, any security updates, anything at all unless your broker or data provider are scumbags and chances are they are not at all.... Next thing on the list is to get a MAC for all the fun stuff.......
Made a move to Ubuntu 8.04 some time ago and can say I've never been as satisfied with OS before! It recognized ALL my hardware and peripherials I use (GSM mobile over Bluetooth, G3 mobile over USB cable, HP printer/scanner, photo camera etc) without even a need to install any drivers. It runs Java apps (the #1 of them I need is IB TWS of course) and didn't have a single crash of them... It runs all Windows apps I need with use of Wine (QuoteTracker for example). It has much more fancy effects (love the Cube thing) than Vista and what's most surprising they don't slow down computer at all.. It has tons of software already pre-installed... It is not vulnerable to viruses and spyware... And it all is FREE... Not a cent (well, several for CD-R disk to burn an installation image )... It definetely is a good value, especially for free product... Of course I understand the fact that if you run into compatibility or similar such problems under Linux it would probably be harder to fix simply because there is no commercial support included with a product... But once working it is extremely stable, secure and usable...
bighog, I spend 6 days a week fixing broken home and small business computers - yet I agree with you. Your chances of getting a virus or spyware if you stick to trading are close to nil. Not only that, if you have a router you don't need a special firewall either - the router itself is a double hardware firewall. On top of that, you have the built in Windows firewall. But if you do want to use the internet as well as trade, currently the leanest most effective anti-virus is the free Avira Antivir (now AVG has gone the way of bloat). It uses around 10MB of system resources once it settles down. A weekly scan with (again free)Spybot Search and destroy 1.4 (turn off helper/ resident option) will suffice for removing most spyware. I haven't yet found a better remover despite spybot's recent 1.5 and 1.6 versions being buggy. I am looking, though. On the subject of Vista, if you cannot get an official 'downgrade' to XP from your PC manufacturer there are plenty of torrents available, fully working and 'officialized' with standard or customized versions often with SATA and other drivers built in and even perfect Vista lookalike appearance.
Microsofts main marketing strategy has always been to drive new hardware sales using software, knowing that to sell more operating systems they have to make your current computer first obsolescent and then, finally, obsolete. An underlying part of this strategy is to intentionally release OS versions that they know will require upgrades to be satisfactory and then charge for the upgrades. Witness for example the way the early Vista systems were packaged with a sales pitch for the upgrade and a sealed -- don't open unless you are prepared to pay-- upgrade CD already inside the original box. They are the true master's of deceptive advertising. They are also the champions of inefficient software, slow code, and every manner of ridiculous add-on as long as it can slow your computer or gobble up resources (plaid window backgrounds and dancing paper clips!) Their introduction of Word as a fully pixillated word processor was still another "brilliant" thrust in this same marketing vein. They knew full well that Word would run unsatisfactorily slow on the then current hardware in comparison with byte oriented word processors, but they used their marketing power to sell MSWord anyway; thus driving hardware sales and consequently OEM OS sales. Of course the idea behind Word is an excellent one as it fully integrates text and graphics, but nevertheless Microsoft's marketing was diabolical. Microsoft has persisted to this day with their policy of only minimal backward compatibility when bringing out new versions, and they have done all in their power, both legal and extra legal, to make it difficult for competing vendors to maintain compatibility. In many respects, Microsoft has been, and obviously remains, a very nasty company -- going back to the day they stole the guts of their first OS. Their leader for years, Bill Gates, must surely have taken lessons from Rockefeller. Until recently, Microsoft's virtual monopoly, has permitted them to get away with these very customer unfriendly strategies. As Linux has become increasingly popular, particularly in Europe, and "encouraged" by the many suits brought against them, they have had no choice but to clean up there act. In fact, it was during a spate of very bad publicity that Mr. Gates realized the value of philanthropic largess and began to make very conspicuous charitable contributions. In this, Mr. Gates follows the pattern of prior robber barons who fell late in life into philanthropy, after they could afford to be nice. In Mr. Gates case, however, his timing was both particularly good, and particularly bad. Under threat from Linux, Microsoft was eventually forced to make a cleaned-up version of NT available at reasonable cost as the XP operating system -- the first really good operating system that Microsoft has produced. These days, Microsoft is apparently feeling less of a threat from Linux, or alternatively has simply made a giant marketing mistake in backsliding into there old ways with the introduction of VISTA. Rest assured, Microsoft will do all in it's power to introduce VISTA dependent applications demanding evermore hardware resources, use unsavory tactics to virtually force other software vendors to do likewise, and market a seemingly endless series of expensive upgrades.
I'm now running Comodo Pro, Avast!, along with Firefox 3.01 or Opera (depending), and all is well. I was going to purchase Nod32 antivirus for $15 after mir, but Avast! does most of what I need. Oh, on Windows XP SP3. Unless Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista in terms of response times, useful features, and hogging resources (as in being less resource consuming), I will move to a Mac once and for all in another year or two.
I love my XP but I wish the whole world would get off microsoft's customer list. These guys clearly care about a fat bottom line first rather than unleashing a "ready," efficient operating sytem. Any one running LINUX with their trading platform?
Y'all do know XP (in all it's glorious versions) can be purchased, don't you? http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=368&name=Operating-Systems Who cares if Dell or any other PC maker offers it? In fact, why not just get the PC with no OS at all. Unless you want the "other shit" that Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer, Lenovo, etc , pre-installs to make your life more enjoyable and simplier for the maker and their partners to own your ass, you'll want to do your own installation anyway. Osorico
I do (as I wrote in my previous post in this thread today) trade using Ubuntu based computer and can say that I'm very satisfied with it. So far it is very stable and not resource greedy at all. And by the way, many Windows applications can be run under Linux too (including trading related packages) under Wine, which has become quite good too and really allows to literally not care of the fact "if it runs under it", but just start the installer of a Windows based app, install it and enjoy it the same way as it would be under Windows (even being added to your applications menu and/or create desktop shortcut automatically) while having all UNIX benefits on your side also. That is, in my opinion a great hit from UNIX world to M$, cause it makes transition almost seamless and creates the completely new phenomenon - no need in Windows to be able to benefit from Windows popularity (in a form of so many apps written for it)... And it's not some crappy VM emulator stuff, actually it often runs win32 apps faster than Windows does it.
I tried buying a Dell system with no OS. They won't sell them that way. I now build my own; this way I know what I'm getting and I have control over it.