I haven't used a Mac back then neither have I seen one, I only knew they existed. But even as a Windows user, Flash was mildly annoying. Serious exploitable vulnerabilities just never ended. They'd fix one and three new ones would pop out.
But then again, I also built my own stuff with Flash, and that side of it was amazing. ActionScript docs are some of the best API docs I've ever seen. The ease with which you learn to use Flash the authoring software is also noteworthy.
I worked with Flash in my day job... I was working in the E-Learning space and a lot of the training content was Flash based. Once I'd found out I could read/write to local files, I locked my home/personal system down. There was a reason it was necessary for what I was working on, but in the end that was a crazy gaping security hole at the time. Later versions had safer options, and more things were locked down.
That said, there were so many issues with improperly marked COM objects that could be misused in IE browsers that Flash wasn't even close to the only risk. From I-Love-You to so many other viral payloads through the late 90's to the late 00's.
As many things as I liked about Flash, it was certainly annoying how many websites didn't have secondary navigation options in those days.
But then again, I also built my own stuff with Flash, and that side of it was amazing. ActionScript docs are some of the best API docs I've ever seen. The ease with which you learn to use Flash the authoring software is also noteworthy.