off topic: enhanced DOS ?

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

DOS -- at least any version that was known to me -- had built-in
limitations in that it only understood FAT-16 partitions (although I
believe there may have been some public domain IFSes -- installable
file systems -- that allowed it to read / access a couple other
partition types), and it could only see a distance of about 8 meg.s
out from the beginning of a hard drive. I seem to recall there may
have been a DOS that could overcome this, perhaps a DOS that was
inside Novell Netware. Does anyone know of _any other_ DOS version
that may have been enhanced in this way, taking it beyond these
constraints of the DOS era ? I have a practical reason for inquiring.

Thanks.

Jordan