[KLUG Members] another box to linux?

[Marr]

On Wednesday 16 June 2004 12:05pm, bill wrote:
> I have an opportunity to recommend that a client change their Windows
> box to a Linux box.  Lots of good reasons (mostly the incessant
> Microsoft vulnerabilities), of course, but one gotcha.
>
> They have an old DOS-based (!) app that they have to be able to run on
> this machine.  They actually run it as a shortcut over the network.
> That is, they have a link on their desktop that refers to this program
> on another Win machine.  The program will not run correctly on Windows
> if I copy the program to this box because the data is still on the other
> machine, where it has to stay.  So, this box just maps the network drive
> and uses a shortcut to the program on it.
>
> Long story short, is there any chance I could make this box Linux and
> still make that program run?  I have a Linux box on the network already
> I can use for testing.  Any advice, recommendations?

Hi Bill,

I don't know about the currency/relevancy of the applications/notes these 
links point to, but here's some information from my archives, some of which 
might help (all of the links seem to still be valid):

--------------------

DOSemu (DOS emulator for Linux); (I tested this semi-successfully in Mar 2002, 
to run the old DOS-based Quicken [finance program]):

   http://www.dosemu.org

HOWTO for running DOSEMU/FreeDOS on Linux (Slackware 9.1) by David Precious, 
Jan 2004:

   http://www.preshweb.co.uk/linux/howtos/dos/

Parts 2,3 (Part 1 seems to be non-existant!) of article (circa Mar/Apr 2002, 
by Marcel Gagné) on using Linux for emulation:

   http://www.linuxjournal.com//article.php?sid=5955
   http://www.linuxjournal.com//article.php?sid=6013

DOSbox -- a DOS emulator for playing old DOS games:

   http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

Bochs -- an open-source x86 emulator [runs on any CPU, but ''can be compiled 
to emulate a 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro or AMD64 CPU, including optional 
MMX, SSE, SSE2 and 3DNow instructions'']; (can run Windows atop it; can run 
old DOS games on it?); really only useful for development of Operating 
Systems, not very useful for games, etc:

   http://bochs.sourceforge.net

QEMU by Fabrice Bellard -- DOS emulation, faster but less mature than Bochs:

   http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/

--------------------

HTH...

Bill Marr