London Stock Exchange Rejects .NET For Open Source

ChiefMonkeyGrinder writes "This summer, the London Stock Exchange decided to move away from its Microsoft .Net-based trading platform, TradElect. Instead, they'll be using the GNU/Linux-based MillenniumIT system. The switch is a pretty savage indictment of the costs of a complex .Net system. The GNU/Linux-based software is also faster, and offers several other major benefits. The details provide some fascinating insights into the world of very high performance — and very expensive — enterprise systems. ... [R]ather than being just any old deal that Microsoft happened to lose, this really is something of a total rout, and in an extremely demanding and high-profile sector. Enterprise wins for GNU/Linux don't come much better than this."

Comments

Awesome.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now how about my desktop?

Re:Awesome.

[spun]

Now how about my desktop?

Might I suggest teak? I suppose you could go with faux finished MDF if you are on a budget, but teak is beautiful and will last forever. Then if you have any money left over, nothing says "I have arrived" like a porcelain fountain.

Re:Awesome.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Then if you have any money left over, nothing says "I have arrived" like a porcelain fountain.

A bidet on your desktop?

Re:Awesome.

[FatdogHaiku]

But where will the stock exchange go now for their daily dose of evil?

Dude, it's the Stock Exchange... that's like asking "Oh, how will we ever make this ocean wet?"

Re:Awesome.

[jggimi]

{Said in Robert Van Winkle's voice}

Ice Ice Weasel

De Icaza Responds

[H4x0r Jim Duggan]

De Icaza Responds:

Nooo, wait, come back. I found a way for people ditching Windows to keep using Microsoft technologies..

Re:De Icaza Responds

[hairyfeet]

OT I know, but I never have understood why the Linux guys hate the registry so much. Do you really think hunting down a bazillion config files and editing them is better? I can just hand my customers Tuneup utilities and it automatically cleans out any cruft left over from uninstallers, and you really can't beat .reg files for fixing little niggling problems remotely. Got a borked sound server? just double click this .reg and reboot. Display problem? Borked autorun? .reg file. For having to work on a machine across town or across country it sure is a hell of a lot easier for me to just send them a .reg than it is walking them through a bunch of CLI.

So really, what is the hate? as someone who lived through the .ini days I'm quite happy with the way the reg works on WinNT based machines. I'm sure for Linux guys with lots of It experience editing a bunch of config files is just fine, but as someone who has to deal with home users on a daily basis, it is just easier IMHO to deal with the registry, especially with sites like this at your fingertips. So I just don't get it. The MSFT Bob jokes I understand, and as someone who suffered with WinME and Vista before tossing them for the goodness of Win2K and WinXP pro respectively, yeah get the joke there. But seriously what is wrong with having a registry?

Re:De Icaza Responds

[Bigjeff5]

...you cannot polish a turd.

Actually you can polish a turd, it was a surprising result from a Mythbusters episode a while back. Denser turds turn out especially shiny.

Otherwise your post was spot on. I think the concept behind .Net can be very useful in the Enterprise environment, primarily in areas where efficient memory/processor management of apps from multiple vendors is required. This particular case seems more suited to the pure process effeciency you get with C and C++. The only thing that seems strange is the cost disparity. .NET apps are usually much cheaper to develop, and the hardware costs would have to be astronomical to make up the difference were that the case. Obviously something about the structure of .Net did not fit the application and had to be worked around in a big way. Of course I've also seen projects whose primary costs have nothing to do with actually engineering or delivering the system.

Re:De Icaza Responds

[StuartHankins]

Actually you can polish a turd, it was a surprising result from a Mythbusters episode a while back. Denser turds turn out especially shiny.

<gagging> Teaches me to read Slashdot while I'm eating...

How fast

[overshoot]

did Microsoft take down their triumphant "case report" on the original design-in?

Time to reevaluate

[binarylarry]

I think Microsoft needs to make sure they... Get The Facts. .... oh right

Windows7 Launch Party Convo Killer

[MightyMait]

I guess this would be a bad topic to bring up at a Windows7 launch party.

I will only believe this...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

...when I will have seen this mentioned in the next Highly Reliable Times issue!

Re:Still there

[KDR_11k]

Microsoft prefers the computer percent: 1/128

Re:Still there

[schon]

Actually, in retrospect, I supposed they *are* being truthful there..

It says 100% reliable on high-volume trading days... so any day where it doesn't work won't be a high-volume day (because it doesn't work, there won't *be* any volume)

In other words, this is marketspeak for the redundant phrase "when it doesn't work, you won't be able to use it".

Re:GNU\Linux Marketing Department

[rbcd]

This isn't backslashdot, it's slashdot. So that's GNU/Linux for you, not GNU\Linux.

Re:savage idictment of .net?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

i read the article ...

I'm sorry, you must be looking for some other web site. We don't like your kind here.