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Gartner got themselves a load of free press about the potential for spyware on Macs. There’s still articles hitting the wires on this subject!

I blogged on this subject a few days back.

In my opinion, this is a complete non issue. There is very little (if any) spyware on Macs, and it’s painfully obvious that as Mac’s grow in popularity, there will be spyware.

But the sky is not falling on the Mac.

The biggest thing people forget is that spyware is a one-two punch game. A) you need to make the spyware and B) you need distribution for the spyware.

So spyware developers joyously creating Mac spyware in the basement of some Russian brothel will still be stuck with the problem of actually getting it on the machines of users. It’s not easy. You need all kinds of trickery and legerdemain marketing to get people to download this stuff. Free song lyrics! A better search experience! Free screensavers! Use our P2P program!

You get the picture.

Right now, if you don’t want spyware, either practice safe computing (a lengthy separate discussion) or buy a Mac. And as someone commented in my other blog entry, you actually can get right-click mouse functionality with OS/X (a personal peeve of mine). Hmm…..

Alex Eckelberry