Free Use / Open Source Question

Free Use / Open Source Question - DosBox

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First post, by jsholm

Posted on 2014-09-23, 15:21

jsholm Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014-09-23, 14:53

To whom it may concern, I feel I have diligently searched this site for the following information but was unable to find a conclusive answer; apologizes if I overlooked and or missed my answer. I work in the information technology department of the the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla Missouri and we have a faculty member that wishes to continue to use Microsoft Quick Basic 4.5 (Compiler). They have a legal copy of the aforementioned software and we found that DosBox works wonderfully with Quick Basic 4.5. I wanted to confirm that we would not be violating any agreements with DosBox by using the software for academic purposes? Due to Microsoft discontinuing support for Windows XP I feel this is the next best option. Thank-you in advance for your assistance. Have a wonderful day!

Jason S. Holm

Reply 1 of 3, by Dominus

Posted on 2014-09-23, 15:50

Dominus Offline

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Rank: DOSBox Moderator
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It's GPL so...
BUT DOSBox is NOT recommended for anything but games.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 2 of 3, by Matth79

Posted on 2014-09-25, 16:50

Matth79 Offline

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GPL is absolute, it makes no restrictions on how you use the software, but imposes responsibilities if you wish to use/modify the code.

DOSBOX is designed around the features required for games - it is not intended to be a 100% complete DOS environment, so anything else may find some missing features.

Another alternative may be dual booting into Freedos - that way, you would be in a real dos environment, instead of an emulated one.

Reply 3 of 3, by jsholm

Posted on 2014-09-25, 18:19

jsholm Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: 2014-09-23, 14:53

Thank-you for the replies; I understand the risk and at least for the moment things seems to be going well within DosBox. I just wanted to make 100% sure academic use was allowed and being GPL I feel comfortable pursuing the DosBox option...for thirty year old software (QB 4.5) I feel this is a reasonable option for the user in question.

For what it is worth to whomever may find this thread in the future; Quick Basic 4.5 seems to run well within DosBox, including programs that generate graphics!

Thank-you again for your input! 😀

qb45_code.png

qb45_run.png

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