>Conversely, before automatic updates web developers were stuck supporting Internet Explorer for the best part of twenty years. Many of the people using it had neither reason or knowledge to update it, and it became the reason my parent's computers got riddled with malware.
The failure is not that of Internet Explorer, but rather the OS in which it runs, which has a faulty security model. No operating system should trust executables with everything by default.
I would say that "protecting users from applications" (or at least, external attackers) has been commonplace for maybe even two decades now, ever since major malware 'plagues' of the early 2000's (pre-SP2 Windows XP) like Blaster or Sasser.
That said, in that era it was often assumed (more so than now) that software the user installed himself is trusted.
The failure is not that of Internet Explorer, but rather the OS in which it runs, which has a faulty security model. No operating system should trust executables with everything by default.