Shouldn't the floppy module got loaded automatically?

[Shaul Karl <shaulka@bezeqint.net>]

  Starting with an attempt to dd a file to /dev/fd0 I was surprised to
find out that there is no such device or address.

    /tmp$ dd if=net-1440.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k
    dd: opening `/dev/fd0': No such device or address
    /tmp$ 

  But then I found out that the floppy module was not loaded.

    /tmp$ /sbin/lsmod |grep floppy
    /tmp$

  Wasn't it supposed to get loaded automatically once dd was attempting
to access it? It does get loaded automatically with cat /dev/fd0:

    /tmp$ cat /dev/fd0>bla
    /tmp$ /sbin/lsmod |grep floppy
    floppy                 46428   0 (autoclean)
    /tmp$
  
  And now the dd command succeeds.

    /tmp$ dd if=net-1440.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k
    1+0 records in
    1+0 records out
    1474560 bytes transferred in 1.228509 seconds (1200284 bytes/sec)
    /tmp$ 
	
  Is it a dd bug? Is it something else? Does it have something to do
with the way dd opens its output device? This is a personal desktop,
which is why I am assured nothing else beside the cat command got the
floppy module loaded.

-- 

    Shaul Karl, shaulka@bezeqint.n e t