New to Linux-have a lot of learning to do.
 

Hi everyone, I think I will enjoy learning Linux. My question is:
I have an old DOS program I need to use that requires buffers and files.
With windows I added files and buffers to the config file.
Will I be able to run it on Linux?

OKMM

Hi there,

good move - you'll probably find many obstacles at the beginning, and many thing you don't understand at once. That's perfectly normal. But keep going, it's rewarding.

Short answer: No.
And that's not because of the buffers and files issues; it's because Linux isn't DOS, and Linux can't run DOS or Windows programs just like that. They're just different systems.

Long answer: Well, there are ways to do that. You could install a virtualization software in Linux (e.g. VirtualBox). This software creates a so-called Virtual Machine (VM) that emulates an entire PC, on which you can install any other OS, even DOS, and run your legacy programs.

[X] Doc CPU

Welcome to GNU/Linux and LQ!

Linux is not Windows, in general, you cannot run DOS/Windows programs natively in Linux.

But there are several free DOS emulators that run well under Linux and allow you to run many DOS programs. FreeDOS and Dosemu come to mind, both of which I have used, are very easy to install and use and both may be installed without root permissions (i.e. as normal user instead of admin, if that is important in your case).

Additionally, there is Wine which allows you to run many Windows programs under Linux. Wine will be easily installable from most distro's package repositories.

You will indeed need to learn many new things - all for the good!

Good luck!

Howdy and Welcome. All this DOS stuff is above my pay grade. But I run dos games like Doom in dosbox.

All distros I know of come with a version of dosbox in their package manager.

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the replys! Looks like I may have to keep one machine on windows until I can figure all this out.
Again thanks for the Welcome and answers. I am sure I will enjoy this endeavor with the help.

You can install dosbox on Linux. It's quite easier.

+1 on this. You could even try your program in dosbox on your windows machine just to check it first.