IPV6 will fix that

True. Though you sort of can do it already, only performance lacks dearly.
I searched at several torrent places for a OSX10.4.10 Vmware Appliance until I finally found just that.

I go on with posting my results into this thread just in case someone else comes around searching for this topic.
I looked into Gnome and autorun support and much to my surprise it turned out that at least the way it is done on ubuntu autorun functionality goes far beyond what windows does.
You can set up standard behavior for a number of media types und System/Preferences/File Managment in the Media tab. With the default settings (Software: Open Autorun Prompt) Nautilus will read and use a windows-type autorun.inf to determine a custom icon for that cd and display this. This will work with a .ico file but it will fail if the icon is the ressources of an .exe.
But there is more: if there is a file 'autorun' with a script in it, and if the user answers the Autorun Prompt in a positive way, this script will be run

Well, depends.
After some further recherche and tests it appears as a hybrid with hfs is indeed needed if you want/have to support mac-ish options like auto-opening folder, background image, custom CD icon etc.
It basically boils down to the old workflow (but with toast replaced by the cli tool 'hdiutil'). Prepare the data on win and linux, then test/adapt on mac, copy them into a .dmg, arrange the window options, then create a hybrid image with 'hdiutil makehybrid' from the command line

strange question, shouldnt I know the answer myself since I've been using all three OSen for ages myself? (Typing this on an Ubuntu desktop)

But it's been quite some years now that I last mastered a win/mac CD (it still had OS9) and I never did one for Linux before.
On the other hand my own computer usage has so much shifted to a net focus that I hardly ever install and run a CD myself anymore. And if I do this at all, it's always on win.

So, win is easy, there will be an autorun.inf with a link to an icon and a link to some autorun.exe or whatever.

On Mac, I'd expect the CD to appear with a large friendly icon, a window opening on double click with more large friendly icons that make it very clear what to do (i.e. drag the application onto the application folder alias). No autorun here.

On Linux? I have no idea. From my own usage pattern I don't expect the stuff to be on a CDrom in the first place, it's either in the repositories of my distribution or in a .deb/.rpm dnl'ed from some url or I got a tarball and have to do the ./configure / make / make install - dance. I don't think I ever opened a "commercial" CD intended to be used from Linux (with the exception of install discs). Autorun? - Gott bewahre! Rather a README, may be an install.pl ...

Now there should be sites discussing that question, design guides, style guides, best practices. No way that I'm the first one pondering about how to make a CD look just right on all three OSen - but google drowns me in a bazillion of unrelated pages. Which is why I turn up here with my question, hoping that some of you keep a link or two in their bookmarks to help me find my way.

please consider voting parent to 'insightful', or at least 'interesting'