What Software does Linux Support?

All of the standard open source utilities, like GCC, (X)Emacs, the X
Window System, all the standard Unix utilities, TCP/IP (including SLIP
and PPP), and all of the hundreds of programs that people have
compiled or ported to it.

There is a DOS emulator, called DOSEMU. The latest stable release is
0.98.3. The FTP archives are at ftp://ftp.dosemu.org/ The Web
site is http://www.dosemu.org.

The emulator can run DOS itself and some (but not all) DOS
applications. Be sure to look at the README file to determine which
version you should get. Also, see the DOSEMU-HOWTO (slightly dated at
this point--it doesn't cover the most recent version of the program),
at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.

Work has been progressing on an emulator for Microsoft Windows
binaries. ("Can Linux Run Microsoft Windows Programs?")

iBCS2 (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) emulator code for SVR4 ELF
and SVR3.2 COFF binaries can be included in the kernel as a
compile-time option. There is information at
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/BETA/ibcs2/.

For more information see the INFO-SHEET, which is one of the HOWTO's
("Where Is the Documentation?" and "How To Port XXX to Linux.")

Some companies have commercial software available. They often announce
their availability on comp.os.linux.announce-- try searching the
archives. ("Are the News Groups Archived Anywhere?")