On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Ben Collver wrote:

:   I am curious about NetBSD's history.  Does someone
: know of a good page describing it?

There are some pages describing it; although I don't remember any of the
links.  Do a search for terms like "Lites," "BSD" on Google.  That's how I
got to know a lot of stuff.
 
:   One thing I am curious about is NetBSD's
: relationship to Lites.  If I understand right, Lites
: is a BSD personality which runs on top of Mach.  I
: remember reading not long ago that NetBSD switched to
: UVM from a vm system that had descended from Mach. 
: Does that mean that at one time NetBSD ran on Mach?  I
: didn't think so, but as you can see I am clueless
: here.

Lites has 4.4BSD-Net2 running on top of Mach.  NetBSD/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/BSDI 
(as far as I know) are efforts to complete the (incomplete) 4.4BSD-Net2,
and then to extend them furthur.

So, in all possiblities, when NetBSD was first made, the designers
probably used a VM system that had descended from Mach to complete
4.4BSD-Net2.  Later on, when things improved and progressed, they switched
to UVM.

This is what I think happend.  All corrections are welcome. ;)

For a history of Unix, check out any book (eg. Design & Implementation of
the 4.4 BSD system).  It will give you info abt how Unix began, and its
various descendants, the lawsuit etc. all the way to 4.4BSD-Net2.  Also,
seaching on Google for BSD or Lites should also give info.

Hope it helps.

Rakhesh