All these "golden days" internet articles forgot about how predatory the environment was back then with how many websites were serving viruses or popups that wo

All these "golden days" internet articles forgot about how predatory the environment was back then with how many websites were serving viruses or popups that would open faster than you can close them. It felt like a minefield. There were good spots of refuge of course but they were almost an if you know you know situation, some websites I would learn about through word of mouth in real life alone. For mainstream non techie folks, the internet was legitimately risky. You'd think you were installing the yahoo toolbar and it would just be malware. "It got a bunch of viruses and got slow" was a common reason to abandon ship and just buy a new PC.