While it is true that the possibility of getting a virus or trojan was scary to some people, I'd have to say that it did little to curb the enthusiastic growth of technology back then. I operated one of our towns' early ISPs, and we had a marvelous tech support crew. Most of our customers were folks who had "click joy" and were happy to click on anything. They needed help at times due to clicking the wrong thing, but they were happy.

There were a few silent customers, the kind you heard from only when they set up their account, then they never called in again. In the early days, there weren't many of those. The dial up technology was so bad that you really did need some outside help at times.

Then there were the timid users, who were afraid of their computers, and these were the ones who required the most help. Some were frightened of doing the wrong thing, as though an errant key stroke or mouse click would cause the machine to die. Others just had no computer savvy, and were we wondered what had motivated them to get online.

Largely, the timid users didn't seem specifically afraid of viruses or trojans; their fear was of technology itself. The fact that there was malware (it wasn't called that at the time) bolstered their fears, but I think that they would have been timid users anyway. The technology was hard to use, on both Apple and Windows operating systems.

[Aside: something that I often told my tech support guys after they'd get of the phone with a particularly 'dumb' customer was "Remember that everyone is an expert in something. You happen to be expert at personal computer technology. The person on the other is expert at something else and they could talk circles around you in that subject. So, what you are doing is teaching them your area. Have faith, they'll get better." As a result, my crew largely did not blame the end user for their computers failings.]

Anyway, rather than Windows' lack of security, I'd say that the problem was the difficulty of use. "User Friendly" was an oft touted phrase back then and while it undoubtedly helped sell whatever was being marketed, it was almost always a lie. Everyone reading this can think of countless times that a piece of software has behaved in an unexpected way. User friendly, my eye.

I too am glad to see Microsoft and Apple trying to make the technology easier and more resilient. Really, it's Microsoft acknowledging that Apple has the right idea and needs to catch up. (This from a Windows user.) And while it is true that some things have improved greatly since those early days of 14.4kbps dial up using Trumpet Winsock, the user must still be aware.

Malware is crafted daily, using state-of-the-art technology. Hacks of large networks make the news several times a year, and smaller hacks go unreported. Identity theft is a growing concern. These are some of the reasons why users need to be aware of the consequences, now and for the foreseeable future.