Not everyone accepts limits like short filenames and lack of permissions so very soon the Rock Ridge extensions appeared to rectify these shortcomings. Joliet Microsoft, not be be outdone in the standards extension game, decided it should extend CD-ROM formats with some internationalisation features and called it Joliet . Linux supports this standards in kernels 2.0.34 or newer. You need to enable NLS in order to use it. Patches and documentation are available.
More information is also available at the Linux and DVDs page.
There is a large number of networking technologies available that lets you distribute disks throughout a local or even global networks. This is one of the earliest systems that allows mounting a file space on one machine onto another. There are a number of problems with NFS ranging from performance to security but it has nevertheless become established. This is a system that allows efficient sharing of files across large networks. Starting out as an academic project it is now sold by Transarc whose home page gives you more details.