Computers were great when the user was in control and got to decide what gets run and what doesn’t get run. When the user was in the driver’s seat. When software developers asked “what does the user want to do with their computer?” and not “what do we want the user to do?” Now instead of driving the car, users are just passengers going wherever software companies are taking them.

Computers started as massively costly, corporation / government only mainframes, that much is clear. They've been productivity machines from the get go, they've been machines made for war.

What computers "are" has been ebbing and flowing decade after decade. They've been repurposed to something that they initially weren't. It was originally niche, and not at all the norm.

Then, there was a brief period when counter culture was pop culture. That was reflected in everything in the 90's, from music to computers.