I currently use a window machine, and have at most of my actual job placements. What are some other options in terms of OS? What do other major banks use? How do I go about starting on another OS besides Windows? Thanks
I use Linux, but it's of no benefit unless running or developing custom software (that has no Windows dependencies). Windows is the sensible choice in most cases.
According to the web there are 300,000+ Bloomberg Terminal subscribers: And from Reuters: Anyone using either of these?!
Choose a distro - probably one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution#Popular_distributions If running headless (on a server) then your criteria will be different than for a desktop. Three major considerations are hardware compatibility, package management and GUI / windows manager. A fourth consideration might be which distributions are offered by hosting companies. GUI / Windows manager is normally GNOME or KDE. Either is fine, down to personal preference. If you have a spare laptop or PC it's easy enough to install and test out and compare. Installation typically can be done is under 30 minutes. You can test many out using a live CD version. I've been using Ubuntu for years and Gentoo previously, and RedHat before that. I'm considering switching, maybe to Mint. I mostly work from the console, so it doesn't matter too much. Other opinions welcome. Are you backtesting or wanting to automate your trading or other?
As for hardware, best to check the compatibility lists provided by the distributions. Any HP or Dell box will be fine in most cases. Compatibility problems I have experienced in the past have been to do with lack of driver support for video or wifi hardware. Setting up multiple monitors has been painful too, but not in recent times. There's nearly always a workaround. Keeping hardware and distro as standard as possible increases the odds of things working out of the box and increases chance that specific community support is available.
I also recommend Linux. Try Linux Mint first then switch later on to a distro you might like better. I use ArtistX based on Ubuntu because of all the free graphic programs it has. Buy cheapo desktop computer from Best Buy. Download Linux Mint or any other Linux distro from www.distrowatch.com Burn Linux to DVD as an image file (iso). Insert DVD into computer and restart. The computer should boot from the DVD, if not you will have to change the BIOS settings. Install Linux OS to entire disk, get rid of Windows in the process. You can have a dual boot system with Windows and Linux or run Linux from the DVD but I do not recommend either. Linux run from the DVD is too slow and a dual boot system might be tricky to maintain.
Awesome posts. I'm hoping to start with a partner, a propiatary office. I have quant and software (trader) experience on windows primarily.