Is this the map that comes with a novell client?
I've run across similar problems when running DOS programs
under 98. Especially if said DOS program was not careful
with it's memory management. One of the programs is not
playing nice. It could also be that the DOS program is
wanting more of a footprint than the shell is willing to
hand out after allocating for Perl. Are you running the most current Active State
build? Without knowing more of your problem, I'm afraid
conjecture is the only help you'll recieve at this time.
And just for the record, I'm running 98SE and haven't run
across any memory problems, but I haven't done many shell
calls either.