The following is based on my observations and should be regarded as an expression of opinion rather than a statement of fact. If the people in charge of the software mentioned don’t like my opinions they should look at the face they present to the world.
DOSBox was written to allow people to play old DOS games on modern computers. It can also run ‘serious’ software but the developers have a pathological hatred of people doing so and it can’t print anything. They are also very slow at releasing updates; Version 0.74 came out in 2010 and it was 2018 before 0.74-2 was released (there wasn't a 0.74-1) and that was only a tinkered with "maintenance release." That was followed by "security release" 0.74-3 in 2019.
Over the years other people have tried to make up for these deficiencies.
DOSBox-MegaBuild
This could print but hasn’t be up-dated by its author since 2010 and is now difficult to track down. However a modernised version was released by somebody else in 2018.
DOSBox-Daum
Like MegaBuild but with added menus to ease configuration. It is widely reported that the last up-date to it in 2015 broke it but it seems to work fine to me.
DOSBoxECE (Enhanced Community Edition)
An up-dated version of DOSBox but still aimed at playing games so no printing. Due to lack of progress on DOSBox itself this has now been abandoned and its developer recommends DOSBox-Staging or DOSBox-X.
DOSBox-Staging
This is a fork by frustrated people who tried to improve DOSBox but were foiled by those in charge. They have concentrated more on modernising the code itself. Can’t print.
vDOS
Heavily modified from DOSBox to run ‘serious’ programs and NOT games. It is only available for Windows, and recent releases only work on 64-bit versions. The author makes some strange choices like a pig-ugly font that’s quite hard to read and a cursor that doesn’t blink so it looks like it’s hung up. Full printing support.
vDOSPlus
An improved version of vDOS that works on 32- or 64-bit Windows with a legible font, blinking cursor and support for long file names. Sadly it’s developer gave up on it in 2017 and started to work on DOSBox-X, to which he has made a sizeable contribution.
DOSBox-X
The best all-rounder. It can print using the mechanism from DOSBox-Daum so that is a bit rough ’round the edges, especially on Linux, but does the job. See https://github.com/ThePillenwerfer/dosbox-x-32-bit for tips. As this fork is under active development improvements can be hoped for but those in charge seem to regard it as a low priority.
It also has menus to ease configuration plus a lot of functions that aren't likely to be of interest to most people but they don't get in the way of the basics.
DOSEmu2
A revival of the lapsed DOSEmu for Linux. Has no relation to DOSBox and can print. Documentation is currently poor and it's about as user-friendly as a barbed-wire bog roll.
DOSBox was written to allow people to play old DOS games on modern computers. It can also run ‘serious’ software but the developers have a pathological hatred of people doing so and it can’t print anything. They are also very slow at releasing updates; Version 0.74 came out in 2010 and it was 2018 before 0.74-2 was released (there wasn't a 0.74-1) and that was only a tinkered with "maintenance release." That was followed by "security release" 0.74-3 in 2019.
Over the years other people have tried to make up for these deficiencies.
DOSBox-MegaBuild
This could print but hasn’t be up-dated by its author since 2010 and is now difficult to track down. However a modernised version was released by somebody else in 2018.
DOSBox-Daum
Like MegaBuild but with added menus to ease configuration. It is widely reported that the last up-date to it in 2015 broke it but it seems to work fine to me.
DOSBoxECE (Enhanced Community Edition)
An up-dated version of DOSBox but still aimed at playing games so no printing. Due to lack of progress on DOSBox itself this has now been abandoned and its developer recommends DOSBox-Staging or DOSBox-X.
DOSBox-Staging
This is a fork by frustrated people who tried to improve DOSBox but were foiled by those in charge. They have concentrated more on modernising the code itself. Can’t print.
vDOS
Heavily modified from DOSBox to run ‘serious’ programs and NOT games. It is only available for Windows, and recent releases only work on 64-bit versions. The author makes some strange choices like a pig-ugly font that’s quite hard to read and a cursor that doesn’t blink so it looks like it’s hung up. Full printing support.
vDOSPlus
An improved version of vDOS that works on 32- or 64-bit Windows with a legible font, blinking cursor and support for long file names. Sadly it’s developer gave up on it in 2017 and started to work on DOSBox-X, to which he has made a sizeable contribution.
DOSBox-X
The best all-rounder. It can print using the mechanism from DOSBox-Daum so that is a bit rough ’round the edges, especially on Linux, but does the job. See https://github.com/ThePillenwerfer/dosbox-x-32-bit for tips. As this fork is under active development improvements can be hoped for but those in charge seem to regard it as a low priority.
It also has menus to ease configuration plus a lot of functions that aren't likely to be of interest to most people but they don't get in the way of the basics.
DOSEmu2
A revival of the lapsed DOSEmu for Linux. Has no relation to DOSBox and can print. Documentation is currently poor and it's about as user-friendly as a barbed-wire bog roll.
