NT for Linux ... ? [Archive] - NinjaTrader Support Forum

BHReach

02-10-2008, 02:40 AM

No plans to support Linux at this time.

"The Mono project is announcing that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications across multiple platforms without any modifications to the code. The new Mono Visual Basic compiler allows developers to continue to code in their preferred Visual Basic/Visual Studio environment and compile and run that same code base on a variety of operating systems and architectures, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS."

Novell press release (BTW Novell owns SuSe Linux):

http://www.novell.com/news/press/major_mono_milestone_significantly_eases_cross_pla tform_development

Mono website:

http://www.mono-project.com/VisualBasic.NET_support

Bill

Lee.Daxx

02-16-2008, 11:48 AM

Has anyone tried running Ninjatrader using vine? http://www.winehq.org/

NinjaTrader_Jessica

02-16-2008, 02:39 PM

Thank you for your post.

I haven't heard anything from users about Wine at this time.

higler

07-04-2008, 07:16 PM

Vista seems to be aggravating so many people (the second coming of Windows ME?), major companies such as Intel refusing to transition to it, and Microsoft trying to speed up the release of Windows 7 does not indicate good things for the Microsoft operating system business. Will NT be offered for any other operating systems or platforms, such as MAC? I am sticking with XP for the forseeable future. The last thing that I need is an unstable trading system. How long will NT versions be designed to function fully on XP?

Also, this is not meant to be a snide post, but it is a little selfish. I think that that NT is a great trading platform and I have put a lot of time and effort into learning it, programming indicators, etc. It is running great and fast and I just want to make sure that it stays that way. It makes me very nervous when Microsoft feels that they can dictate the OS (by killing XP and trying to force people to an unpopular OS). It is important to me that NT remain fast and stable. Thanks.

NinjaTrader_Dierk

07-05-2008, 12:10 AM

NT7 (beta end of thsi year), will run on XP and Vista.

rnicoll

07-05-2008, 03:31 AM

NT7 (beta end of thsi year), will run on XP and Vista.

Can I just echo the request for Linux/Mac support. Love your platform, but I'm not prepared to trade from Windows.

Bamboo

07-05-2008, 03:45 AM

Has anyone tried running Ninjatrader using vine? http://www.winehq.org/

Hi,
I have tried it but it requires some files(.dll's) that are native to windows. So I use it within Virtual box under win 2K Pro- that works perfectly. Data appears to stream faster and obviously more secure as long as you don't share your drive with the windows!
All behind a decent firewall too!(Shorewall)
Love Linux! PCLOS2008 minime fan.

Also tried it with Suse and VMWare Server - works well. Difficulties come with BSD systems- that is a shame! As they do not have much MS compatability with their OSes.
Not tried any other Linux vartiants.
Hope this helps.

higler

07-05-2008, 10:24 AM

Thanks Dierk. One of the things that I have found great about NT is the excellent customer support provided by the NT team and NT community. My questions/comments have always been addressed quickly and in a straight forwad manner.

NinjaTrader_Dierk

07-05-2008, 11:28 AM

You're welcome.

DerekC

07-31-2008, 09:44 AM

Can I just echo the request for Linux/Mac support. Love your platform, but I'm not prepared to trade from Windows.
I would like to echo this request. NT on Linux would be more than cool...

NinjaTrader_Ben

07-31-2008, 10:04 AM

Hello,

Thank you for your suggestion. I will forward this to our development team.

MoskitoTrading

10-19-2008, 04:24 PM

echo. PLease NT on Mac or Linux

doctor leo

11-23-2008, 10:26 PM

We, Mac people, simply deserve NT to become native on Mac... because we don't have almost any native software with capabilities even close to those of NT... do it, please!

Bamboo

11-24-2008, 12:03 AM

I believe that you could also use QT to port NT over to Linux and other OSes. Free- so it would only cost you programmer time.

http://trolltech.com/products

Sorry it looks like support is only for C++ and Java.

Elliott Wave

11-24-2008, 02:36 AM

I'd love to see NT on linux as well (as its one of the few key apps tying me to windows), but I don't think it would make much sense from a resource management perspective to port NT to run on linux natively.

Aiming for linux compatibility though WINE would make more sense and could likely happen much sooner.

Bamboo

11-24-2008, 03:28 AM

Hi Elliot Wave,
I see what you mean. I think the problems lies with .NET compatibility in Linux.
Although I am sure that there is a project version of an Open source .NET.
I also would like to see NT in Linux mainly for security reasons. But I find data comes in faster than in windows too.
I do run PCLOS2008 minime(which has become a biggerme) with VirtualBox VM running W2K and NT et al. The connection is better from within the VM than with native Windows. I find that much better than wine which I have removed completely from my Linux due to stability and functionability.
Although I am happy with that arrangement it would be better to have NT run natively on Linux and like you I would like to ditch windows sometime soon too- but for Command and Conquer I would have done it already.

Gains

12-18-2008, 03:19 PM

You will like this...

http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page

True cross platform NT - Windows, Mac, Linux - now a possibility.

ctrlbrk

12-18-2008, 03:39 PM

Gains,

See my post here:
http://www.ninjatrader-support2.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12629&highlight=ubuntu

I am also wanting to switch from Vista to Ubuntu. Have you successfully used Mono and Wine to run NT? If so, I would really appreciate a installation procedure from you. For now, I am considering having to run it inside virtualbox.

Mike

Gains

12-19-2008, 01:40 AM

Mike,

Sorry no. I have not tried to tackle that. I assume there would be many errors and this is a job better suited to the Ninja development team.

Hopefully they will code version 7 with Mono in mind. Why would they not?
They would be the only charting package on the market for non-windows OS. Since Mono has done most of the heavy lifting in theory I hope Ninja team considers it.

As for Virtualbox I have an online trading friend who is running Ninja in VirtualBox/XP under Suse. He is very happy with it.

I read your link...
3x22" displays sounds awesome!

Gains

williammanda

01-02-2009, 02:23 PM

I have tried two setups using Ubuntu 8.10 as a host and windows xp as a guest via virtualbox. The two setups:
1. AMD 64 dual core 4200 with 2G ram - I setup up the virtual machine for 1GB ram and 60GB hard drive. The virtualbox software only setup a single core processor which this setup was rather taxing. The cpu usage was very high.
2. Intel quad core 9300 with 4G ram - Again the setup consisted of 1GB ram and 100GB hard drive. I could almost live with this setup. It was much better than the AMD.

Besides running NT I also ran a squawkbox in both examples so the results could vary slightly better with just NT.
Also running NT with windows xp on the AMD was the best overall.

I will keep the Intel quad core 9300 setup as a backup system.

ctrlbrk

01-02-2009, 04:01 PM

Cool thanks for the info and welcome to the NT forums!

My main desktop is an E6850 @ 3.0Ghz with 8GB. This weekend (or next) I am building a Q6600 w/8GB system that I need for other business reasons that will run 3 VMs but they are almost always low CPU resources, so I plan to throw a 4th VM on it for some NT backtesting as needed.

I agree with the VirtualBox single CPU being a serious drawback. For this new box, I am going to see if VMware ESXi is compatible with the hardware (not sure since it isn't a server box). I've run ESX in production environments and it's great, and now that ESXi is free I think that beats the other option of doing a core OS then VMware on top of that, or Server 2008 with Hyper-V. And the drummed down ESXi is perfect for this, don't need VirtualCenter for HA/DRS etc.

I'm also still planning on switching my primary desktop from Vista x64 to Ubuntu 8.10 x64. I've got in a dual boot now and am messing around with it. The major disadvantage right now holding me back is the nVidia triple-monitor support is lacking, can't do any desktop effects, compiz, etc. For that setup I prefer VirtualBox over VMware to run my XP box for Outlook 2007 and Ninja. Since I wont be backtesting, single CPU in the VM is acceptable.

Hopefully, if I proceed with that, VirtualBox will add multi-CPU support within the VM's before Ninja adds multi-core support in NT7. Cuz if not, that would suck! :eek:

Mike

NinjaTrader_Dierk

01-03-2009, 05:31 AM

Guys, although we do not support Linux (nor plan to do so in near future) here are some thoughts on Mono:
- nice approach which I have been monitoring since its first days, however complete support of system .NET assemblies (dependeant on .NET version) could be the limiting factor
- many broker/provider APIs are non .NET code (=unmanaged code =native code) and would not run on Mono

Due to these facts (and lots of details related), Mono unfortunately is no option at this time.

Gains

03-15-2009, 03:25 PM

NinjaTrader_Dierk,

I missed this follow up until just today.

Thanks for the thoughtful answer. It's easy for us idealists to imagine the perfect solution without regard for the real world hurdles the coders face. :-)

Thanks to the entire team for all your efforts and for dealing with that list of our suggestions for "improving" Ninja that must number in the thousands by now.

Anxiously watching my calendar and waiting for v 7.

Gains

Treggs

04-05-2009, 11:43 PM

Guys, this is my first post and I have just recently started using NT for charting and I intend to buy it for trading. I have been playing with it in Ubuntu (under wine) to try and get it running and I managed to get it to load and connect to my esignal historical data feed.

I have had to use winetricks to install a few extra bits and pieces and although it's not perfect it does run.

Since NT gets that far, would it be possible to get some sort of support on wine? Seems so close. I'm no Linux guru but I'd be happy to help with testing if volunteers are needed.

My trading software is the only thing keeping me in windows. Would love to be windows free. Wouldn't we all ;)

edit: Just noticed the dates on the posts. Apologies if there is a more appropriate thread this could have gone under

NinjaTrader_Dierk

04-06-2009, 12:43 AM

Unfortunately Linux/Wine is not supported. It may or may not work. You would need to try on your own.

sam30

04-06-2009, 06:46 AM

I also got it working but there are so many limitations that it's not usable for me : charting is very slow and you have to edit manually a config file to add a zenfire account.

Treggs

04-06-2009, 08:27 AM

Unfortunately Linux/Wine is not supported. It may or may not work. You would need to try on your own.

Cheers for the feedback. As of today I am a paying customer based on this support forum and the good experiences I have had so far.

Would it be appropriate to start a new thread for those that are trying to get it working?

NinjaTrader_Michael

04-06-2009, 08:51 AM

Hello Treggs,

That is an excellent idea and I would recommend doing so.

Treggs

04-06-2009, 06:16 PM

When I have a few hours spare I'll run through the process again and make some notes on what I did. Once I have my thoughts gathered I'll start an appropriate thread.

Hello Treggs,

That is an excellent idea and I would recommend doing so.

Jc_oz

08-22-2009, 11:12 AM

I just want to echo the sentiment that has been raised here for the support of a Linux/Mac version of NT...

As of Friday, I have had a gut full of windows and the instability on my 18 month old PC.
My system is dual boot with Windows Vista (possibly the worst windows based operating system ever) and Linux.
Linux is solid, it has not once failed me on this hardware!

I am a demo/micro account trader at this point... I am looking for a stable platform and I am considering Mac or Linux at this stage so that I can take my trading to the next level.

I respect NT so much that if it was available for Mac or Linux, that would even affect my decision on which flavour of Linux or purchase of Mac...

Great product you have developed... but I cannot justify buying your product for a windows platform.

I truly hope NT will broaden it's horizons in the near future...

Regards,

Jc

NinjaTrader_Ben

08-22-2009, 04:00 PM

Hello,

NT7 will work on a Mac. NT7 is due out this year.

sam30

08-23-2009, 06:51 AM

That's great news. Will it also work on linux ?
NT7 will use dotnet 3.5 so how can you port it to Mac ?
Thanks

NinjaTrader_Bertrand

08-24-2009, 10:58 AM

Unfortunately not on Linux, for the MAC you can use several virtualization packages (Paralles, Bootcamp, VMWare).

littlefish

09-07-2009, 09:44 AM

If you have to use virtualization on the mac then truthfully it doesn't work on a mac. It's simply running on windows in a virtual machine.

Any windows binary will run on windows within a virtual machine in any environment.

Here is a screenshot I have taken moments ago showing ninjatrader running on xp within a virtual machine (google Virtualbox) on linux.

The problem with virtualization is the extra load put on a system having to run windows on top of itself. This is what everyone would like to get around by having ninjatrader compiled to natively execute on which ever operating system.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2610/ninjatradervirtualboxli.th.png (http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2610/ninjatradervirtualboxli.png)

splat

11-05-2009, 01:23 AM

I have had to install Windoze so I can run NT. This is the first time I have had a Windoze machine in years, and I really wish it could be just a bad memory. Trading deserves a better platform.

It is probably pretty difficult to port NT, since it is based on .NET, and MS love to lock in their customers, but there is an open source implementation of .NET, called Mono, which might make it possible.

Treggs

11-05-2009, 01:47 AM

I am just trying NT on Ubuntu 9.10 with wine (1.1.32). Each time there is a major Ubuntu release I give it another try. One day it will work .... and I'll post here if it does.

r2kTrader

11-11-2009, 04:39 PM

Wine = dead. It's choke full of bugs and then more bugs.

Use a virtual machine. NT isn't coming to Linux.

Has anyone tried running Ninjatrader using vine? http://www.winehq.org/

r2kTrader

11-11-2009, 04:40 PM

It's cheaper to just buy a PC and dedicated it to NT. Or use a virtual machine.

We, Mac people, simply deserve NT to become native on Mac... because we don't have almost any native software with capabilities even close to those of NT... do it, please!

r2kTrader

11-11-2009, 04:59 PM

Hardware is dirt cheap and virtualization is much further than even 3 years ago.

I'm a Linux guy since 96' running slackware and also dabbled with Linux From Scratch, I am also a member of a few LUGs, and I won't drop names, but I can call some generals if need be.

If you are a serious trader, then get a box or two and dedicate them to NT solely. Use XPLite or the like and strip down the OS, pound it with memory and cpu, and focus on your strategy.

If your decision as to whether or not you will buy NT will be based on if it runs on Linux or Mac, then you are clearly not the market that is serious about trading. That's like saying you won't use Google because they run their servers on Linux.

IT IS ABOUT THE APPLICATION!

YOU GET THE HARDWARE FOR YOUR APPLICATION AND YOUR SOLUTION.

Now with that being said, I think a constructive thread on best setups for Linux/Mac with NT (virtulized) would be helpful and realistic.

Quickbooks still hasn't ported, so what does that tell you. They just went web based.

I'm sure trading software will go the way of the cloud as well, although I would be paranoid (even more than now, lol) about using it.

Thanks. This was not intended to offend, rather just my opinion based on real trading experience as well as a technical background in both Linux and windows. I have little experience with mac, but they went Intel, so a VM should work fine and from what I have heard, it does.

With NT7, you will really get a fast setup under VM with all their memory tweaks etc.

If you have to use virtualization on the mac then truthfully it doesn't work on a mac. It's simply running on windows in a virtual machine.

Any windows binary will run on windows within a virtual machine in any environment.

Here is a screenshot I have taken moments ago showing ninjatrader running on xp within a virtual machine (google Virtualbox) on linux.

The problem with virtualization is the extra load put on a system having to run windows on top of itself. This is what everyone would like to get around by having ninjatrader compiled to natively execute on which ever operating system.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2610/ninjatradervirtualboxli.th.png (http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2610/ninjatradervirtualboxli.png)

Andrea Fare

11-11-2009, 06:11 PM

Treggs

11-11-2009, 06:38 PM

R2k, I agree completely with your thoughts. I have several machines and my main desktop is a dedicated machine for trading running windows. Almost everything else I do I can do using Ubuntu so I guess I just want my cake and eat it too lol. While virtualization is a solution, I prefer to limit the extra layers of complexity. Dual booting my other hardware gives me quick backup options. I regularly save an NT backup and install it on a backup machine so I can switch computers very fast.

Hardware is dirt cheap and virtualization is much further than even 3 years ago.

I'm a Linux guy since 96' running slackware and also dabbled with Linux From Scratch, I am also a member of a few LUGs, and I won't drop names, but I can call some generals if need be.

If you are a serious trader, then get a box or two and dedicate them to NT solely. Use XPLite or the like and strip down the OS, pound it with memory and cpu, and focus on your strategy.

If your decision as to whether or not you will buy NT will be based on if it runs on Linux or Mac, then you are clearly not the market that is serious about trading. That's like saying you won't use Google because they run their servers on Linux.

IT IS ABOUT THE APPLICATION!

YOU GET THE HARDWARE FOR YOUR APPLICATION AND YOUR SOLUTION.

Now with that being said, I think a constructive thread on best setups for Linux/Mac with NT (virtulized) would be helpful and realistic.

Quickbooks still hasn't ported, so what does that tell you. They just went web based.

I'm sure trading software will go the way of the cloud as well, although I would be paranoid (even more than now, lol) about using it.

Thanks. This was not intended to offend, rather just my opinion based on real trading experience as well as a technical background in both Linux and windows. I have little experience with mac, but they went Intel, so a VM should work fine and from what I have heard, it does.

With NT7, you will really get a fast setup under VM with all their memory tweaks etc.

omololu

11-11-2009, 07:17 PM

to JC

I suggest you go MAC, I can confirm NT6.5 runs very well under VMWARE Fusion + XP,
I think running under a virtual machine has several other advantages, like restoring your environment after a system breakdown on a different computer in a minute.

I use this setting at work, and with only 500 megs of ram dedicated to the Vm the performance i get is on par with any dedicated Vista machine with 1gig of ram...

Andrea,

You are right.

I've had my MacBookPro 17" 4GB RAM + VMWare Fusion + XP + NT6.5 running very very smoothly for a year now. I allocate 1.5GB RAM to XP; I also have the Anvira AntiVir antivirus on the XP (just a protection for XP; no antivirus for my MAC). I've recently added a 42" LCD. I'll upgrade the Mac to 8GM RAM in December and allocate 3GB to XP. I'm current beta-testing NT7 on the same setup and it is running smoothly too (except for NT7 "beta" behaviour).

I'll stick to this Mac setup since NinjaTrader is not in the mood for a native Mac NT.

Treggs

11-11-2009, 07:53 PM

omololu

11-11-2009, 08:42 PM

For those running virtual machines on a mac, wouldn't it be better to run windows natively using bootcamp? Then you could use all your machines resources to run NT which is a definite advantage if you are backtesting.

I understand the appeal of a virtual machine being moved between machines but the same can be managed using the NT backup feature.

With VM, the Guest OS (e. g. XP + NT + all other XP related/associated tools) can be moved to another Mac machine as quickly as 3 minutes. With Bootcamp, the backup process for XP is not as fast and simple.

At present, I don't want to do Bootcamp method because I don't want to dedicate the whole MacBook Pro machine to XP. Whilst the XP + NT is running, I can use Safari or just see my incoming mails in the MAILS client tool. I can also use SPACES (a very special tool in MAC OS X) to simultaneously see four screens (XP + NT in one screen, Safari in a 2nd screen, MAILS in the 3rd screen, and my desktop containing Crude oil price, US Dollar Index, and Gold spot widgets live charts in the 4th screen). However, adequate RAM + Hard disk size is required to cope with all these.

I'll prefer to dedicate an iMac machine to an XP + NT setup using Bootcamp method, and consequently having XP completely take-over the Mac machine.

Treggs

11-11-2009, 09:04 PM

Fair enough. Why not just build a dedicated windows desktop and run synergy to share your mouse and keyboard with the macbook. Best of both worlds and probably cheaper than an imac.

Spaces isn't a "special feature" in OSX. Linux has had virtual desktops for ages and I'm running virtual desktops on my windows machine. (Currently 6 virtual desktops on a triple monitor machine).

I use mainly open source software like firefox, thunderbird vlc etc so I can pretty much work from any platform. It just makes sense to run NT on a dedicated windows machine but you can see why I would like NT to work nicely on Ubuntu. I think eventually I'll run a second box with Ubuntu for all my daily tasks and connect to my current trading machine using synergy.

With VM, the Guest OS (e. g. XP + NT + all other XP related/associated tools) can be moved to another Mac machine as quickly as 3 minutes. With Bootcamp, the backup process for XP is not as fast and simple.

At present, I don't want to do Bootcamp method because I don't want to dedicate the whole MacBook Pro machine to XP. Whilst the XP + NT is running, I can use Safari or just see my incoming mails in the MAILS client tool. I can also use SPACES (a very special tool in MAC OS X) to simultaneously see four screens (XP + NT in one screen, Safari in a 2nd screen, MAILS in the 3rd screen, and my desktop containing Crude oil price, US Dollar Index, and Gold spot widgets live charts in the 4th screen). However, adequate RAM + Hard disk size is required to cope with all these.

I'll prefer to dedicate an iMac machine to an XP + NT setup using Bootcamp method, and consequently having XP completely take-over the Mac machine.

omololu

11-11-2009, 10:09 PM

Fair enough. Why not just build a dedicated windows desktop and run synergy to share your mouse and keyboard with the macbook. Best of both worlds and probably cheaper than an imac.

Spaces isn't a "special feature" in OSX. Linux has had virtual desktops for ages and I'm running virtual desktops on my windows machine. (Currently 6 virtual desktops on a triple monitor machine).

I use mainly open source software like firefox, thunderbird vlc etc so I can pretty much work from any platform. It just makes sense to run NT on a dedicated windows machine but you can see why I would like NT to work nicely on Ubuntu. I think eventually I'll run a second box with Ubuntu for all my daily tasks and connect to my current trading machine using synergy.

Synergy/MAC OS X project is still incomplete.

MAC OS X "Spaces" has some features that makes it special or different. One of this is that MAC OS X is shipped with it. Another is that user can associate applications to a specific Space. It is also seamless is usage. See my attached screeshot.

I've used Linux (Gentoo, Suse, Fedora, etc) for years now and can conclude that it requires considerable technical knowledge to use and tweak it, unlike Windows and Mac. I've tweaked MetaTrader to work on Linux and MAC OS X, but not completely satisfactory. Linux and MAC OS X are all Unix derivatives, but MAC OS X just stands out. The only draw-back with Mac is its initial high cost and that's not favorable. Ubuntu is coming up to a good standing too. I shall appreciate it, if you will share your Ubuntu experience and setup with me.

I've installed Open Source Firefox and VLC on my Mac too, and they are OK.

I wish that NT is natively available on Mac and Linux (it seems an impossibility now).

Treggs

11-11-2009, 10:23 PM

Synergy/MAC OS X project is still incomplete.

MAC OS X "Spaces" has some features that makes it special or different. One of this is that MAC OS X is shipped with it. Another is that user can associate applications to a specific Space. It is also seamless is usage. See my attached screeshot.

I've used Linux (Gentoo, Suse, Fedora, etc) for years now and can conclude that it requires considerable technical knowledge to use and tweak it, unlike Windows and Mac. I've tweaked MetaTrader to work on Linux and MAC OS X, but not completely satisfactory. Linux and MAC OS X are all Unix derivatives, but MAC OS X just stands out. The only draw-back with Mac is its initial high cost and that's not favorable. Ubuntu is coming up to a good standing too. I shall appreciate it, if you will share your Ubuntu experience and setup with me.

I've installed Open Source Firefox and VLC on my Mac too, and they are OK.

I wish that NT is natively available on Mac and Linux (it seems an impossibility now).

My Ubuntu setup is currently 9.10 dual booting on my trading box. I have been experimenting with VM's (virtual box and VMWare Workstation) and wine to get NT working. VMWare works well on a dual head Ubuntu box but three monitors and two video cards is proving to be unreliable.

On windows I use Virtual Dimension as a desktop manager and it also allows you to assign app to desktops. It's not as pretty as spaces but it works well and never crashes. There are better virtual desktop solutions for single screen windows boxes but virtual dimension works the best for me on a triple screen setup.

I have been messing with the idea of building a second machine to run Ubuntu on two monitors (allowing the nice desktop effects easily) and running this in tandem with my triple screen windows box. I would then be able to run ubuntu and windows at the same time to give me the best of both worlds. Ubuntu for my day to day tasks and windows for trading. That would allow me to offload all the extra stuff to the ubuntu box and really stream line the trading machine. The extra couple of monitors wouldn't hurt either :)

omololu

11-11-2009, 10:52 PM

My Ubuntu setup is currently 9.10 dual booting on my trading box. I have been experimenting with VM's (virtual box and VMWare Workstation) and wine to get NT working. VMWare works well on a dual head Ubuntu box but three monitors and two video cards is proving to be unreliable.

On windows I use Virtual Dimension as a desktop manager and it also allows you to assign app to desktops. It's not as pretty as spaces but it works well and never crashes. There are better virtual desktop solutions for single screen windows boxes but virtual dimension works the best for me on a triple screen setup.

I have been messing with the idea of building a second machine to run Ubuntu on two monitors (allowing the nice desktop effects easily) and running this in tandem with my triple screen windows box. I would then be able to run ubuntu and windows at the same time to give me the best of both worlds. Ubuntu for my day to day tasks and windows for trading. That would allow me to offload all the extra stuff to the ubuntu box and really stream line the trading machine. The extra couple of monitors wouldn't hurt either :)

Thanks, for sharing this with me.

Andrea Fare

11-12-2009, 03:55 AM

For those running virtual machines on a mac, wouldn't it be better to run windows natively using bootcamp? Then you could use all your machines resources to run NT which is a definite advantage if you are backtesting.

I understand the appeal of a virtual machine being moved between machines but the same can be managed using the NT backup feature.

Treggs, you are right but two aspects must be taken into consideration here:
1) The VM footprint is incredibly low nowadays
2) I trust the efforts of the VMware staff when putting together the "hardware" platform which is seen (virtually) by Windows as it runs in the VM, much more than i trust myself when assembling a custom PC the main reason being: it is virtually impossible to strive for perfect software-hardware compatibility without experimenting extensively.

This is why, I think, windows runs much better on VMWare fusion than on the average pc.
Ultimately windows targets a processor architecture not a hardware platform (as does MAC), when you play with the hardware platform you are embarking in an adventure. Of course if one is a geek, and loves to recompile, overclock, watercool in his spare time windows (an ultimately linux) are much better choices.

Regards.

Treggs

11-12-2009, 06:08 AM

Andrea, fair points and I agree virtualization has come a long way. I just think the price of having separate hardware is worth it as I have a fair bit of experience building machines.

Makes sense we all use what works for each of us.

Treggs, you are right but two aspects must be taken into consideration here:
1) The VM footprint is incredibly low nowadays
2) I trust the efforts of the VMware staff when putting together the "hardware" platform which is seen (virtually) by Windows as it runs in the VM, much more than i trust myself when assembling a custom PC the main reason being: it is virtually impossible to strive for perfect software-hardware compatibility without experimenting extensively.

This is why, I think, windows runs much better on VMWare fusion than on the average pc.
Ultimately windows targets a processor architecture not a hardware platform (as does MAC), when you play with the hardware platform you are embarking in an adventure. Of course if one is a geek, and loves to recompile, overclock, watercool in his spare time windows (an ultimately linux) are much better choices.

Regards.

r2kTrader

11-15-2009, 11:38 AM

Treggs,

If you are that concerned about the difference between the VM and native boot (maybe 5% difference?, others can tell you exactly what you give up, but I would guesstimate (snigglet) about 5% on the high end).

NT is free for testing. Setup old boxes to burn systems for you. It's cheaper and less time consuming than trying to get a square peg in a round hole.

Think "appliance". Software+Hardware = appliance. You want back testing appliances. This isn't about trying to make your life pretty and cozy and fit it all in your nice pretty mac. It's about utility and function. Computers are free and NT is free. When PCs that are 1 generation old can be procured on ebay for dirt cheap, it makes no sense to worry about getting things to run on different platforms. Are you also trying to get a microwave that is also your television and your refrigerator?

Seriously guys, I'm a HUGE linux advocate, but this is not about Linux. It's about TRADING, and whatever "appliance" you can find to do the job, you use and you build your platform around the appliance. There is no advantage for NT to go to Linux. As much as I would like it, it doesn't serve their market. You wouldn't go to GE and ask them to make your microwave fit in your refrigerator because you want it nice and neat and you don't like having two seperate power supplies.

They will tell you to simply put the Microwave on top of the refrigerator and stop emailing them with your suggetion ;-)

For those running virtual machines on a mac, wouldn't it be better to run windows natively using bootcamp? Then you could use all your machines resources to run NT which is a definite advantage if you are backtesting.

I understand the appeal of a virtual machine being moved between machines but the same can be managed using the NT backup feature.

BHReach

11-15-2009, 12:41 PM

I shall appreciate it, if you will share your Ubuntu experience and setup with me.

I am testing NT on Slackware Linux under VirtualBox with XP. So far it works flawlessly.

XP is stripped down (remove all unused services and eye candy). It is fast and stable on the VB emulated hardware (i.e., it runs 24/7 for weeks without crashing). Only used for trading software so no antivirus software needed, it is behind my stateful Linux firewall and the XP firewall.

Windows OSes have had trouble with multitasking from the get go so the fewer programs you have running under XP the faster and more stable it is.

If you have a modern CPU with hardware virtualization, the performance difference between VM and native hardware is negligible (much less that the performance difference between a low end and high end computer).

I have 8GB ram on my computer and I assign 3GB to VM.

XP running in the Linux VM is faster than Vista on my laptop (it has only 2GB ram).

tradetree

12-26-2009, 12:17 PM

I don't think NT developers or management have any metrics on how many people trade on Linux. I will only buy NT when Linux is supported. How many other people exist like myself?

tradetree

12-26-2009, 12:22 PM

Oh and I forgot to mention that I've used Tradestation for years on Linux using VMware and I will not go back in that direction. It works for small time traders but not for significant volume and sophisticated algorithms. It is just too slow for professional use.

I don't think NT developers or management have any metrics on how many people trade on Linux. I will only buy NT when Linux is supported. How many other people exist like myself?

greg814

06-09-2010, 05:30 PM

Thanks guys for your thoughts. Just started testing NT and my enthusiasm for it is somewhat diminished by my irritation about having to use Windows again. I'll try the various methods of running NT under Linux and might just go for the "buying a Windows trading box" option if it's not satisfactory.

But seriously, the Mac and Linux communities are only growing and if you're a company trying to sell a product (a very good one btw), then reaching out for those user groups is maybe not so far from interesting. Just a thought..

RDPoS

12-09-2010, 05:05 AM

bump. I have about had it with windoze crashes with NT7. If it isn't the API, it is the historical data, or NT7 just freezing (3 times tonight already) forcing a hard kill.

Treggs

12-09-2010, 05:24 AM

bump. I have about had it with windoze crashes with NT7. If it isn't the API, it is the historical data, or NT7 just freezing (3 times tonight already) forcing a hard kill.
I've tried every method possible to run under Linux, it's just not worth the hassle. Spend the dollars on a specific windows 7 trading box. Never looked back.

carmiFR

07-27-2011, 10:00 AM

Any news about NT and linux ?

The main interest I think is to have NT+broker API hosted, so no power or network failure ...

Thanks

NinjaTrader_Brett

07-27-2011, 10:13 AM

BankRobber

10-15-2011, 11:31 PM

Unfortunately this would not be supported. NinjaTrader requires the .net framework to run which is a windows component, which means that NinjaTrader requires windows. There is no change to this at this time moving forward.

I think by porting to native Linux you would solve the BIGGEST disadvantage of NT7 - constant crashes. It is shame that I need to babysit a 1000$ software on WIN7 running on a Quad Core processor with 10GB ram and SSD drive!!!

RDPoS

10-16-2011, 02:55 AM

I think by porting to native Linux you would solve the BIGGEST disadvantage of NT7 - constant crashes. It is shame that I need to babysit a 1000$ software on WIN7 running on a Quad Core processor with 10GB ram and SSD drive!!!

Word. Just think of the tech evolved trader you could corner the market on as one of the very few Linux trading platforms.

Winblows.

BankRobber

10-17-2011, 04:23 AM

Word. Just think of the tech evolved trader you could corner the market on as one of the very few Linux trading platforms.

Winblows.

Yep, a picture is worth a thousand words... One of the many Oopsies during the day LOL
But it's NOT funny, I was thinking to build a "supercomputer" LOL something with at least 8 cores processor min 32GB ram fastest SSD in Raid 0 , but nah, it won't solve the problem... THE PROBLEM IS WINBLOWZZZZZZ!!!!!
Some people shoulda understand this!

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6756/ninjatraderstoppedworki.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/710/ninjatraderstoppedworki.jpg/)

tradetree

10-17-2011, 09:25 AM

BankRobber

10-19-2011, 12:39 AM

I have NT crash mainly when I'm debugging a strategy in Visual Studio, but not during the day when I leave it and let my strategies run. How much stuff do you have running on it? I have about 10 charts and strategies running. I limit it because I know it can't handle too many threads. The problem appears to be when a thread is delayed for too long, then the system hangs. It is really annoying during debug because that is all you are trying to do and it hangs. But good luck waiting for a linux version of NT. I played with some free packages on linux but was discouraged.

Well, you have gotten your braking points in Visual Studio, right? I never run more than 6 charts plus my strategy, for which i know it's a resource hog, because of heavy calculations on 27 currency pairs, although, I'm trying to optimize the code.
But, I'm getting the same freezing moments even when I'm not running my strategy, for example when I'm running weekly backup.
And I'm not waiting for linux edition, unfortunately I know it will never happen :(