Which flavour of Linux is likely to be most compatible with SCO Openserver?

jcborland · 10-05-2009, 03:31 PM

Hi,
I currently use SCO Openserver to run some cobol applications and I was thinking of moving over to Linux or FreeBSD. Does anyone know which is likely to be the most compatible? Is it likely that I will be able to just copy it over and run it?
Thanks,
Jim.

jhcaiced · 10-05-2009, 09:00 PM

Hi,

If all you need is to run COBOL applications any Linux will
do without a problem, you only has to use the proper runtime
for COBOL.

For server installations I recommend CentOS-5 which is free,
very stable and very well supported in the community.

Best regards,

kbp · 10-05-2009, 09:07 PM

Hi,

You may be able to get it running on linux by installing old libc and the a.out support module but there are no guarantees, the cleanest way would be to recompile

cheers

kbp

kbp · 10-05-2009, 09:14 PM

Hey jhcaiced, maybe my memory is failing... I thought Cobol apps were compiled to native format.. ? .. must be time for a brain rebuild

jhcaiced · 10-10-2009, 06:42 AM

Hi,

Just to complete the thread, the COBOL applications are compiled in
some sort of intermediate byte code that can be executed through the runtime.

For that reason, you can run the same application on different platforms
Linux, Unix, SCO, event DOS has a runtime for COBOL.

Best regards,

jcborland · 10-10-2009, 09:36 AM

Hi,
I have a runtime for SCO and I was hoping to be able to just copy it to Linux or FreeBSD and run my cobol intermediate code without the need for a complete recompile. I also want to able to compile using my existing cobol compiler ( again just copied from SCO ). I have had a look at an opensource cobol compiler but it has problems with some of my source so I thought copying the runtime over would be the easier option.
Regards,
Jim.

jhcaiced · 10-10-2009, 09:49 AM

Hi,

If you have to run the same runtime of SCO, take a look at:
http://linux-abi.sourceforge.net/

I haven't tried that recently but that works fine.

Best regards,