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I'm a big linux fan, I've been using it since 1996 and currently my company servers run only linux.
I can tell you that linux (ubuntu and all other distributions) are not yet ready for prime time desktop.
As @Big Mike correctly said, linux is ready only for a very simple and standard desktop usage.
Of course you can experiment as you like, but be sure of why you want to use it on the desktop. If you want to use it to run windows trading applications, you're simply adding compatibility problems and gaining nothing.
Mike I have spent many many hours digging through various forums on this exact subject. I like ubuntu a lot and my laptop is dual boot Win7/Ubuntu so I can use some of Ubuntu's features. My attempts to get triple and quad screens working properly has wasted far too many hours of my life though. I have come to the conclusion that if you want to run multiple monitors in Ubuntu, you will be fine if you stick to one video card (i.e. dual monitors). As soon as you dive into the arena of dual (or more) video cards, expect problems that need all sorts of tweaks to make run sort of ok. It is possible to get multiple nvidia cards working but don't bother trying to get the ubuntu eye candy working, which defeats half the purpose of running ubuntu.
Bottom line is Nvidia need to come to the party with better drivers and they just haven't put the effort in. The only option I can see working any time soon is ATI's eyefinity which I believe will be Linux supported.
As nice as a multi monitor ubuntu setup would be for trading, it has too many down sides to be practical or stable enough for trading imho.
I had more luck making a quad monitor hackintosh. Now that was a sweet setup Running trading software in a virtual machine isn't particularly smart though. I did think of making my desktop a quad screen hackintosh and running a trading specific headless server and RDPing to it but again it's just another level of complexity to go wrong.
I just run my trading desktop with Win7 and a laptop backup. No software goes on the desktop unless it has been given a flogging on the laptop so my trading machine is nice and stable.
I was hoping I could find someone who had experienced the nvidia problems like me, and then tell me ATI worked. I am open to buying two cheap radeons to take the place of my cheap 9500GT's, if it would solve the issue.
I'm ok with running MultiCharts in VirtualBox, I don't need the extra 1ms of latency I might experience and my machine is plenty fast. Other than MultiCharts, Chrome is really all I use with exception to Camtasia. I've yet to test whether or not I can use Camtasia within VirtualBox properly to make videos.
No the idea is Ubuntu on my main system, then VirtualBox for MultiCharts, it works seamlessly so can't even tell its running on Windows in a VM on the Ubuntu desktop. That much I've proven and tested already, its the nvidia four monitor thing that is holding me back.
