So, for anyone in the know, is the version of HOMM being sold here the original DOS or Windows version? I'm wondering if I might be able to run this within DOSBox on my Linux and Mac machines.

as far as I know the DOS version so multiplayer was possible.

When I try and run HOMM in OS X with DOSBox it returns "Unable to access CD Drive"
Is there a way around this or do I need to boot over to Windows.
Thanks

just edit the configfile of dosbox to mount the right file probably
most likely they have a .\ there which you change to ./
further check the contents of file that is imgmounted. be sure that case is right.

I'm additionally having this "unable to access CD Drive" error, although I'm currently in linux. I was wondering if anyone knows the path for the config file the above user is speaking of.

Solution : http://www.gog.com/en/forum/heroes_of_might_and_magic/heroes_on_mac_os_x/perm=5/#p_b_5
This should work for Linux too after modification for DOSBox call...

Thanks! That method worked with a few linux modifications. I think I'll quickly make a thread about how to get this game to work on linux, thanks to you, of course.

Good idea. It'd be great to have an howto for Linux too.
You can easily (attended that you know Linux a minima) make Heroes run based on the os x howto but an explicit one is far better.
No need to thank me. I'll happily use others howto (yours included) when I'll make games run on my Linux(es) =).

I have a MacBook and just downloaded Heroes 2 from GOG.com but after I downloaded it, it stated "This program must be run under Win32." How do I get the game to work since the whole download is in a cryptic language other than that message. I either want my money back or the game to work. Help!

You can always refer to the List of GOG games that use DOSBox in DOSBox wiki. This is useful reference for bot Windows users and users of alternate OS
GOG installers are Windows only so you have to get the game extracted somehow first. Usually this involves using Wine or Mac equivalent. Also the DOSBox that comes with the installer is windows version so it needs to be replaced with one designed for your system.
For more precise instructions see the link Horus provided above.

Do you often buy PC games and expect them to work on your Mac?

Heroes 2 comes, out of the box, as an application run under DOSBox in Windows (hence the "this needs Win32" error message). This means that you can't run it directly on OS X. What you need to do is unpack the installer file and access the .gog file that it contains - the .gog file is a disc image which contains all of the game's data files required to run under DOXBox.
Here's a brief guide on how to get it to run:
1) Get a copy of CrossOver Games, from Codeweavers.
2) Open the .exe file from GOG in Crossover. This will launch the Windows installer from within CrossOver.
3) Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver Games/Bottles/winxp/drive_c/Program Files/GOG.com
4) In this folder you should see a folder marked Heroes 2 or something like that (I don't have Heroes of Might and Magic 2 yet). Within this folder you should see a very large file with the extension .gog.
5) Download a copy of Boxer and run it once - you should afterward see a folder in your home folder called DOS Games, and within that folder you should see a filed marked "Drop games here to install". Take the .gog file you saw earlier, and drag it and drop it on top of the file named "Drop games here to install". This will copy the files over from the .gog file and make a new file for Heroes 2.
6) Launch that file. That's Heroes 2, packaged by Boxer into a standalone game file which will run within the OS X version of DOSBox. If it asks you which .exe file to launch, choose the obvious option for running Heroes of Might and Magic 2 (e.g. Heroes2.exe or HOMM2.exe or something along those lines).
I'd provide the links to Boxer or CrossOver Games but to be honest you should Google them for yourself - not to sound condescending, but if you're a Mac user you really should have done your homework first before buying games on GOG; some games are DOS titles which may work fine in DOSBox, either through Boxer or Dapplegrey, and some are Windows titles which require CrossOver to run, or a full Windows install running either in Parallels/VMWare or through BootCamp.
I'm primarily a Mac user myself (MacBook and MacBook Pro, 10.6.1 and 10.5.8), and through the procedure I outlined above, I've gotten Shattered Steel, Rise of the Triad, and Earthworm Jim 1/2 to work perfectly under DOSBox (well, not so perfectly in the case of Shattered Steel, but that game was arguably kind of broken to begin with). If you're going to buy a game from GOG for your Mac, you MUST diligently check first to see if it either (a) has an open-source port running on OS X, (b) runs within DOSBox, or (c) runs within CrossOver Games.
If you didn't notice already (and it is kind of obvious), GOG supports their games to work only on Windows. If you buy a game to work on the Mac (or on Linux for that matter) and find that it doesn't run well or not at all, and you didn't understand the risks involved in running Windows software unsupported on your Mac, GOG is certainly not responsible for any of that. Caveat Emptor.

you have to use the command "mount CD D: (directory)" to the file folder that containes all the game files if i remember correctly

The DOS version only allows for saves to have a maximum of 8 characters. Where can I get a version with a windows executable if it's not possible to fix the DOS version? Can gog.com do something about this? Not a major issue but it's still annoying.