You will find that DOS, Unix and Linux all have some basic things that all use the same sorts of designations.
Linux command line is quite complete since it continued the development of Unix while DOS aborted early on and went to windows.
Linux handles "slowly failing hard drives" fairly well, simply dodging the bad areas and continuing to work far past the error levels that Windows can tolerate.
If your boot sector goes south of course, all bets are off. If she can't boot, she can't run.
I am attempting to fix my wife's Vista laptop (hard drive attacked by something again) -- and I have set my white box up as a test station for Linux and LibreOffice so she can kick the tires of going over to Linux.
So far she admits that Windows isn't reliable in the University world she lives in, and she hates all the restrictions IT puts on the machinery simply to try to keep it working. She admits that LibreOffice is "useable" and the controls are very similar to Office 2003 (her last drop menu and task bar Office type interface).
But she is very leery of losing her Windows based MS Office and is very leery of using anything else as some of her compatriots have tried to go Mac in the past and gotten "no-get-over" issues with Word for Mac --- translation and formatting issues with complex reports and papers, etc.
Some of these formatting and translation issues resulted in grade mark downs and student protests over "My paper didn't have that improper indent in it, see, here is my printed copy ..."
So I am sitting here again, battling to get her Vista machine back for the umpteenth time.
"I can't take a Linux laptop to work. Computer Services would have a whole litter of kittens and be emailing my department head if they ever even saw it running in my office ....."
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