I think that article only goes so support my assertion. He is basically saying that the reason there is none is because people that use MACs don't put up with it. Well eventually when MAC starts making in-roads in the lower end of the market it's like a bunch of criminals moving into the neighborhood.
Maybe it's a little harder to write malware for the MAC maybe not but there will be a point when the additional difficulty doesn't out weigh the profit that could be gained and at that point people will focus more effort on it. It's just like the energy problem people didn't get really serious about it until oil got really expensive.
Not to mention that there is all sorts of stuff in the /Library folder and it might as well be as good a place to hide as the registry.
gruber wrote that essay in 2004. in those days, it seemed like the mac would always be the niche computer for special snowflakes. now it's more popular than anyone could have imagined. so it seems entirely likely that the platform will eventually get its share of uninformed, indifferent users.
Maybe it's a little harder to write malware for the MAC maybe not but there will be a point when the additional difficulty doesn't out weigh the profit that could be gained and at that point people will focus more effort on it. It's just like the energy problem people didn't get really serious about it until oil got really expensive.
Not to mention that there is all sorts of stuff in the /Library folder and it might as well be as good a place to hide as the registry.