| >      I thought that OS X was mach kernel based, making it a lightweight
| > derivative of a BSD kernel, is that right?
| not that I know of... I don't think I've heard anything like that.
| 

Yes, it is.  They use the Mach 3.0 kernel.  The Mach kernel has been around for a long time. (I have a copy of Byte with an article about the Mach kernel for mac from '89)

They mention it at the bottom here:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technologies/