"You don't have to be a master mechanic to drive a car, and you don't have to be a computer expert to load AV software and install a firewall."
Actually... I'm really not sure about that statement.
1. You do have to pass a driving test to drive a car. (maybe there should be driving tests for using an internet connected computer? I'm not even joking!)
2. Sure you don't have to be an expert to type things on a keyboard, or even use 5% of your word processing capabilities; but actually managing your computer, and installing software? For many people that does require what they would describe as an expert... I'm talking about the people who get nervous when the computer won't turn on because it's not plugged in, for example...

While I respect the author's opinions and those of the original article, I do believe that the original article makes a fairer point, namely that good security is the province of designers and not users.
I fully agree that it isn't possible to have a single, free, simple way of stopping all security vulnerabilities (paid for by microsoft). What there should be more of is security designers trying to make it easy for users to make the right decisions. Not gratuitously using pop-up windows to flag security alerts (especially if the majority are innocuous - it teaches people to just say yes), or requiring constant patching (which is another distraction from the *reason why* users are on their computers in the first place), are just a few simple steps in the right direction.

Sure security is complex, but currently users do have it bad and it could be a lot simpler for them if security design was a bit more focussed on making things easier on the user as opposed to just focussing on stopping any particular vulnerability from being exploited.

You have to bear in mind that the user is a part of the security of the system and if that human-computer interaction is faulty, then the whole thing stops working.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/236/25966#25966