Hello Bernd!

  BS> CD-R and CD-RW drives identify as normal CD-ROM drives to the
    > SCSI (or ATAPI) bus. As do DVD-ROM drives...

Would I be right in thinking this means they can be booted from?

  BS> Recent drives have a common command set ("mmc") and should "just
    > work". Older models have proprietary commands and need to be
    > explicitly supported by the burning software.

This sounds like useful information, since I've been toying with the
idea of picking up some refurbished Plextor SCSI CD-RW drives, which
may pre-date "mmc".

  BS> I think no special software is to just mount ISO-Filesystem DVD-
    > ROMs. (DVD-Video also has a mountable filesystem, but to
    > descramble the video streams, a special authentication and
    > decryption software is needed. I don't know if there is any that
    > actually works on NetBSD.)

When you say "ISO-Filesystem DVD-ROMs", are they limited to CD-ROM
capacities (680Mb?), or is there something similar to ISO 9660 for
DVD-ROM discs?  Perhaps ISO 9660 itself scales to DVD?

If I start saving now, perhaps I'll be able to buy a DVD-RAM drive by
the time everyone else starts storing their data in 3D crystal
matrices! ;-)

Regards,
  - Andy.