Been wondering.

1. Has there been any attempt to increase drastically or remove DOS memory limitations.

2. Are there any simple programs that flush the memory or at least let you pick off TSR apps.

Try looking through this link
http://www.bookcase.com/library/software/msdos.util.tsr.html

I did a quick Google search for a program that I thought I used to use for that, cant remember the name but I thought it was called flush tsr

Keep the old stuff running

I have verified positively that Caldera's `EMM386 v3.27' of 1998 (from `DR-DOS v7.03') was the only memory manager i could find which behaves well enough under `MS-DOS v8.00a' to provide me with reasonable support in all types of memory, especially when compared to the others. I can tell you that it will do so even in a less-than-perfect `VMWare WorkStation' environment so i suggest you give it a try if you're looking for better memory management:

http://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pc/caldera/DR-DOS.703/images/disk05.144
http://ftp.uni-bayreuth.de/pc/caldera/BETA/EMM386.EXE

Life is easier for `DOS v7.10a' users and those working with `DOS v5/v6.x' can also benefit from `DOSMax v2.1' as a valuable memory manager supplement... I would bet that Caldera's `EMM386 v3.27' is a winner in all those DOS environments. Have fun, good luck!

Salutations,

Michel Samson
a/s Bicephale