Basic - you can certainly find a basic interpreter for linux, but there are two issues here. The first is history and why basic is popular (in the dos/windows world) but not in the linux world. The second is what are the alternatives in the Linux world.
Back about 27 years ago, the IBM PC was introduced, and it had the Basic language built into ROM. This version of Basic was more feature rich than the original Basic Bill Gates provided to the nascent microcomputer industry on paper tape a few years prior. An interpreted language, Basic was easy to write simple programs in, but computer science and the state of the art has advanced greatly in the past nearly 30 years! Languages like Pascal and C were faster, but some programmers disliked compiled languages; the near instant feedback of interpreted languages appealed to some programmers. Basic is an old language, which has been patched and modified until it is completely different from that early language. Just like many of the legacy hardware decisions have burdened PC system development (cassette interface, serial and parallel port irq's, ports, dma locations, the plethora of video memory modes and locations), the Basic language has affected the software field.
Linux grew out of the Unix community, GNU, and the web. Several languages were part of the early Unix community, including C, C++, Perl, Java (yes, over 10 years old now). Several recent languages have had an interesting effect on the web and software development, including Python and Ruby. SQL has had an enormous effect upon application development, and graphics toolkits have added power to all of these languages. Linux comes with powerful languages, depending upon which distribution (distro) you pick, and which packages you install.
But Linux is not Windows. With Linux you get both much more and much less than you get with Windows. If you approach Linux with an open mind, willing to learn something new, you will be pleasantly surprised. Since you want a Basic compiler, I will assume you are a programmer. Take the chance to learn one of these new languages, and the time you have spent with Linux will benefit you.
