netbsdnoob could you also explain what is automatic device node creation? Why do I need it on a laptop?
You mean for example when I attach a USB stick? or something like that?
NetBSD has no devfs (unlike Linux, FreeBSD). Nodes are generated by the MAKEDEV script during installation. But this approach isn't very flexible, especially on a system where you expect to hotplug different flash storage devices.
devpubd acts like a device state/event change daemon, running the scripts found inside /libexec/devpubd-hooks whenever a new device is attached or detached.
The scripts in turn will create the required devnodes and symlink them to /dev/wdges/<part>, where <part> is the label or the generic identifier of the partition which a dk wedge was generated for.
Needless to say that this approach with shell scripts is designed to allow for customization (much like powerd and envsys). You can choose how your devices are handled and which scripts to enable.
netbsdnoob Also what is "user mounting on nodes owned by the standard user" ? Could you explain that point?
It allows the standard user to mount devices on mount points located inside their /home.
For automounting on NetBSD see automounting with Berkeley am-utils.
For power management, again see the Performance tweaks thread; at the very least you can enable noatime and nodevtime mount options, enable powerd and estd (+ potentially write a powerd script to lower CPU clock rate when battery level falls), lower default backlight level if needed, and enable DPMS on X11; you may also put storage device in sleep mode with atactl
as suggested by RVP..