As odeon points out, there are decent emulators
available for free - in order to run older software.
Certainly seems more rational than running an
ME partition.
Honestly, I have had less trouble with partitioning a drive to use an old OS, than fidgeting with the various emulators, which only work for a few programs and juggling which updated versions of which programs go with which emulators.
Besides, in another few months the only person who uses those old DOS programs I have will have outgrown them and the old machine will probably be engaged somewhere else.