From CP/M to OpenVMS, one of the best things to do with a Linux box is to run programs for other operating systems on it. It can simplify your life considerably. Emulations of a wide variety of operating systems are available for Linux. More than mere academic exercises, these “hosted OSes” are practical investments for many server rooms. Also see Cameron Laird’s notes on emulators.
Emulating legacy operating systems on Linux
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I worked for a Mainframe VAR for a few years. I’ld say ninety percent of businiess was generated selling the FLEX/ES emulator that ran on SCO Unix and Linux. IBM had basically ignored customers requiring S390 systems costing less that $250,000, and now virtually all the low end Mainframe business is Emulation.
It was always real fun to replace a giant room-filling Multiprise system with an itty-bitty X-series Server that often times was more powerful.
I haven’t tried it in a number of years, but I never got VICE to work on linux, whereas I had no problems on MS Windows. Ironically since VICE is GPL I would figure that the linux version would work better.
I routinely run Xtrs to emulate my TRS-80 Model III, Model IV and Model 4P systems. It works very well using TRSDOS, LDOS and CP/M.