Linux Comes to Wall Street (eWeek) [LWN.net]

eWeek looks at the use of Linux by Wall Street financial firms. "Long relegated to menial file and print server duties in most enterprises, Linux is now playing a mission-critical role in financial trading and other highly sensitive networks on Wall Street. The traction in the financial sector is part of broader Linux adoption growth, which is expected to continue through this year and next, according to Deborah Williams, an analyst at IDC, in Framingham, Mass. "On Wall Street, time is money, and for 2005 the buzzword is going to be latency. If you can speed things up and address that latency, you can make more money," Williams said."

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Linux Comes to Wall Street (eWeek)

Posted Apr 28, 2005 15:58 UTC (Thu) by einstein (subscriber, #2052) [Link] (2 responses)

It gets old after awhile to hear one clueless pundit after another talk about how linux has mainly been used for file and print services. That's never been true - linux has historically been used most often as an internet web server - and also to provide mail and dns services. A minor nit, I know, but it gets monotonous hearing the same old imaginary facts after awhile.

It's also nothing new that Linux has moved into the data center - wall street firms have been using linux for years, perhaps that fact has only just now attracted the attention of this pundit...

Linux Comes to Wall Street (eWeek)

Posted Apr 28, 2005 18:22 UTC (Thu) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

Don't forget big computationally intensive in-house apps that you don't need an ISV's permission to move from one OS to another. Those have been quietly getting moved from Solaris to Linux for years.

Linux Comes to Wall Street (eWeek)

Posted Apr 28, 2005 19:27 UTC (Thu) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

I think that the "file and print services" meme comes from the fact that there is an implied "Instead of Windows" phrase attached to it. Sure, Linux/Unix has had the Web, DNS etc. market forever. But file and print services on "Windows Networks" have been handled, to a great extent, by Windows servers. Linux running file and print services instead of Windows is still notable, whereas Linux running web services is just a given.