Linux is one of two Operating Systems with raw floppy drive support. This has a vital role in archival purposes (reading and importing archaic floppy formats). This is vital for a huge number of reasons ranging from classic game emulation to importing decades old records.
The other OS with raw floppy support is FreeDOS, but it does not have a complete raw access driver, but instead allows raw I/O directly to the controller. This makes programming floppy utilities that require raw access a lot harder.
I should say major Operating Systems. Some variants of BSD have raw floppy support, but a lot of it is in user-space via I/O sockets.
BSD has not seen primary use for this in decades. Linux and FreeDOS have taken dominance.
Is this “raw” support in Linux the reason that the GreaseWeazle (github.com/keirf/grease...) is made to be used mainly with Linux machines? FreeDOS. Sigh. I need to put it in a VM on Proxmox and actually learn to use it properly, with networking and USB support. I started on Win3.1; my DOS is weak.