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London Stock Exchange To Abandon Windows

Posted by timothy on from the don't-weld-shut-the-doors-then dept.

BBCWatcher writes "Computerworld's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that the London Stock Exchange is abandoning its Microsoft Windows-based trading platform: 'Anyone who was ever fool enough to believe that Microsoft software was good enough to be used for a mission-critical operation had their face slapped this September when the LSE's Windows-based TradElect system brought the market to a standstill for almost an entire day .... Sources at the LSE tell me to this day that the problem was with TradElect ...'"

24 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say... by AltGrendel · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Huzzah!

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Amphetam1ne · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wait... Slashdot has adverts on it?

      --
      I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
    2. Re:Let me be the first to say... by djdavetrouble · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wait... The internet has ads on it?

      --
      music lover since 1969
    3. Re:Let me be the first to say... by ciderVisor · · Score: 2, Funny

      management [...] suits

      I see what you did there.

      --
      Squirrel!
    4. Re:Let me be the first to say... by node+3 · · Score: 5, Funny

      MS used to run lots of ads, including banner ads on slashdot, about how the london stock exchange chose windows over linux... Those ads stopped very quickly when they had the big outage a few months ago

      Ah, so the MS ad servers were running Windows too?

    5. Re:Let me be the first to say... by RichardJenkins · · Score: 2, Funny
      From http://www.londonstockexchange.com/traders-and-brokers/products-services/connectivity/tradelect/tradelect.htm:

      TradElect is the Exchange's world-beating trading system. It brings unprecedented levels of performance, enhanced functionality and new services to our markets.

      TradElect allows our customers to trade on one of the fastest, most reliable and technologically advanced equity markets in the world. After the performance upgrades introduced over the last year the trading system delivers and an average round-trip latency of around 4 milliseconds, and a trading Capacity of 18,000 orders/sec.

      TradElect was part of the Exchange's Technology Roadmap (TRM) project.

      Borsa Italiana and the London Stock Exchange are currently working to integrate their systems in order to improve the performance, tradability and access across asset classes and markets for all of our customers.

      They don't even mention stability. Outstanding.

    6. Re:Let me be the first to say... by KZigurs · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, the ads were served by a rogue ad network running via a botnet that incidentially relied on LSE as largest cluster it had managed to infect. Microsoft wasn't really advised by their marketing people whom exactly are they employing to run their campaigns.

  2. Thanks. by bezking · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Anyone who was ever fool enough to believe that Microsoft software was good enough to be used for a mission-critical operation"


    This just made my day. Now i can go back to bed.

    Thanks!

  3. Re:Not Windows' fault by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 4, Funny

    This could easily have been the other way around, ditching Linux and a shit piece of trades software for Windows and a good bit of trades software

    Yeah, but then it wouldn't have made Slashdot!

  4. Re:Two years worth of use by jcr · · Score: 4, Funny

    We've got a contract with Accenture at work

    What company is that? I want to short your stock.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Exchange Server by KraftDinner · · Score: 5, Funny

    I never understood why Microsoft made a specific server for stock exchanges anyways. It sure does e-mail great though.

  6. MOD PARENT DOWN!!!!! by gazbo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mere facts backed up by references are nothing compared to what you want to believe - silence him!

  7. Re:Two years worth of use by LordEd · · Score: 2, Funny

    Given Microsoft's history of FUD, their habitual use of paid commentors, or even dead people writing letters, I think we should all sit back and enjoy the spin the paid apologists will have to go through to tell everyone how it wasn't MS's fault.

    As an unpaid dead person writing a letter, let me the first to say BRAAAIIINNSSS....

  8. In other news by wild_quinine · · Score: 2, Funny

    In other news, the London Stock Exchange will shortly be abandoning the pound, as well.

  9. I for one... by MrKaos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Welcome our smug, bearded, Unix liking overloads.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  10. GP is probably right by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure the LSE has no idea who's actually to blame, and is just dumping Windows/.NET because it's so easy to migrate off of.

    --
    My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
  11. Fun game by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 3, Funny

    google for "London Stock Exchange site:microsoft.com" and fiddle around a bit looking at current vs. cached pages.

    I bet if you interviewed Ballmer, he'd say something like "London has a Stock Exchane?!? I sure as fsck never heard of it"

    --
    My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
  12. Re:Similar at several European banks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Could have been worse. Apple would have said that they were design features.

  13. Re:Similar at several European banks by ciderVisor · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft.

    --
    Squirrel!
  14. had to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's not Windows vs Linux.

    No, it's Microsoft vs Linux.

    No, it's Microsoft vs GNU/Linux.

  15. Re:Similar at several European banks by node+3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft.

    I can't accept the implication that every boss[1] in the world is that incompetent.

  16. Re:Using M$ as a moniker for Microsoft by node+3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, no. MS....FTW !

    Correct. No MS, FTW!

  17. Don't worry. C# and Mono will save the day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If the replacement system uses C# and Mono there is still hope for Microsoft!

  18. Re:Not Windows' fault by DiLLeMaN · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... and they invested a lot of resources, both technical and marketing, into making this system run.

    I didn't know you could use marketing to make systems run... =]

    --
    /var/run/twitter.sock is a twitter socket puppet.