It can read files, write files, and allocate memory. Is there anything else you need to compile software?

Can it? Files on Windows 95 and files on most Unix-like OSes are very different things.

They're the same from the perspective of a stream of persistent bytes.

If you want "very different" then look at the record-based filesystems used in mainframes.

	▲	CodesInChaos 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Do you have any recommended reading about record-based filesystems?