I’ve been using Linux for a few years now, and quite happily trade with it, and by now I understand it quite well, I’m starting this thread to find out if I’m the only one! and if there is anyone else out there struggling with it, hopefully I can help you. Metatrader runs happily under Wine.
Oh, you aren’t the only one 
Unfortunately, MT4 and all other trading interfaces I’ve used under Wine aren’t as smooth as under Windows. Like watching a video at 60 frames per second vs. 5 frames per second, it’s noticeable. It also takes up much more CPU than running under Windows, meaning a slower machine for me and lower battery life, since I like to run about 3-10 instances of MT4.
I like trading in Linux for the virtual desktops (greatly helps with organization), compiz graphical effects and no worries of malware capturing my trading password and clearing me out…but it can sometimes be a great hassle. Too many times I’ve tried to enter a trade only to have Wine crash on me.
It works much better with Oanda or another web client, but you lose the indicators and other benefits of running MT4.
Keeping Windows in a Virtualbox is a must if Linux is your main OS, in my opinion. I’m currently using Windows 7 with Ubuntu in Virtualbox, makes for easy switching when I need it.
Interesting, I’ve not run more than a couple of MT4 at a time, but I can’t tell the difference between it and Windows with MT4, it runs 100% fine.
I’m running Ubuntu 9.04 (karmic) (I think) the latest one anyway on a pure installation, it’s this version that made me say - this is good, this is better than running Windows, dual screen and everything. It’s always so responsive, you never get that thing when you click and nothing happens, and it runs faster than machines of double the power of mine with Windows on.
And like you say Oanda runs great on it.
I sort of fell into using Linux, my HD crash and didn’t have a Windows installation, and tried it, and it’s sort of grew on me.
Karmic is Ubuntu 9.10, Jaunty is 9.04.
Here is a photo to show what I mean. With only 3 MT4 instances running, I’m at 80% CPU utilization right now. The lowest I get is 50%.
The exact same 3 files in the same 3 folders on my Windows installation take up 0% CPU. When I scroll a chart in a window, that terminal.exe temporarily bumps up to 10%, then falls to 2% within a second, and back to 0% once I’m done scrolling.
Big difference.
All mine hover around the 3 - 5% mark! yes 9.10 I’ve got with KDE - Kubuntu
Mine over around 3-5% when I only have one chart open and minimal indicators. Open 8 windows in each MT4, stack indicators in each of them and you’ll see what I’m seeing.
Hmm, hearing that you’re only using 3-5% got me thinking. I ran MT4 in a terminal window and saw many many error messages. I solved the errors and now CPU utilization is comparable to Windows!
Thanks! 
~Rob
Tried wine and got some error messages. Probably my fault, but I get older and don’t want to turn every bit in the right place anymore, sorry. When I used wine 10 years ago it was running out of the box. Virtualbox rulez!
A simpler but limited solution is to use the web based platforms most brokers offer. I have tested FXCM and it works but the charting is not great. I trade with Oanda and their platform is Jave based and runs the same on any OS.
Well, it seems I will have to take that back. After leaving the charts open for a while, they fall back into the 80% range for CPU utilization, and my laptop fan turns on to compensate for the overheating. The fans turn off shortly after closing MT4…
I’d love to hear how you’ve been able to achieve this performance with MT4. Would you be willing to upload some files to me so I may investigate this?
I’ve done nothing at all to make an effort to achieve this performance, other than it’s on a clean Karmic 9.10 installation, and then had to copy the mfc42.dll file to get it working, and I’m on the latest wine version.
I’m happy to help, which files would you like to have a look at?
P.S. mine wouldn’t boot up this morning, isn’t it odd that it would do that just after I’ve been singing it’s praises, but it does that now and again and my heart sinks, you never know whether it will boot up again, not like with Windows though, where you know that it wont!
Don’t know about you, but MT4 under Windows never fails for me, not even close. MT4 under Linux crashes on me constantly. This is why I’ve moved all trading to my Windows machine, leaving Linux only for browsing…etc (everything else).
What happens when you say it doesn’t boot up? Are you referring to MT4 or Linux?
No it was Linux and it was a one off. I’d suggest running the latest install from winehq.com. I remember one version of Wine crashing when MT4 would do an Alert, the last 3 or 4 releases have been much better.
Trust me, had the issue been that easy, I would’ve figured it out by now 
It seems no matter what I do, the CPU usage goes crazy after leaving MT4 open for a while. Wine isn’t reporting any errors when running MT4 from the command line, not sure what the issue is. In any case, I’m doing my trading in Windows for the foreseeable future. 
Hi Guys i used ta have all them problems with mt4 using Ubuntu 10.04 so i kicked mt4 into touch then i started to demo a lot of web based platforms these are the best ones i have tried. the best with out a doubt is igmarkets rock solid even with 10 firefox browsers open then marketindex or i should say rbs then (Cityindex finspreads Barclys Stockbroker capital spreads ) all the same. so my platform is IG without a doubt igmarkets only gives ya 2 weeks then it shuts down hope this helps:D:D
you are already using 10.04 
, its stable version will be on april 2010
how was it ?
Ubuntu 10.04 not had any probs with it apart from running mt4 thats why i went web based and i use igmarkets runs great rock solid no probs at all so far it just runs great m8:) i just image it with clonezilla once a week so i dont have ta start downloading at the packages been using Ubuntu for about 4 yr now no probs rock solid i am norm on the newest alphas vers testing it unless it causes me a lot of probs i stick with it:D
I’ve used IGMarkets before, their platform is anemic at best. Charting is almost non-existent, and don’t get me started on their lack of indicators. Switching to a subpar platform because of Linux compatibility is the last thing I’d do. I have no allegiance to one operating system, I simply choose the best one for the job. For MT4 trading, that’s Windows.
I created a new .wine folder and transferred over only the mfc42.dll file and started up 3 fully graphed MT4 instances. One just stayed at 60% CPU for some reason, the indicators were different on that one so something went wrong with that. After removing that MT4 instance I just left 2 open for a while.
Within a few minutes my laptop fan started up and my CPU temperature was about 52degrees. Overall CPU utilization was around 22%.
I closed all MT4 instances and within a few minutes my CPU dropped to about 46degrees, with overall CPU utilization around 0-2%.
Either my indicators are more CPU intensive than yours, or you aren’t noticing (or are used to) the extra load. I’ve had a few laptops overheat on me in the last few years, and I’m not convinced that using Linux wasn’t the cause.
Not worth it.
Have upgraded to the latest Kubuntu version LTS, I think it stands for Long Term Satisfaction - I wish, it’s OKish, some issues, jury’s out on if it’s an improvement.
I’ve got the MT4 CPU usage down below 10%. Usually hovers much lower, but it can spike. This is with no EAs running, so I can’t give it the thumbs up quite yet