Fortunately, the Hare virus, like 1992's Michelangelo virus scare, was more hype than reality. But both sold a lot of antivirus software. Most of our systems have antivirus software today as a result. The majority of users, however, have little or no idea where viruses actually come from, how detection and eradication work, and most important, what the vectors are for spreading viruses. Many still fear the Internet, bulletin boards, and online services as hotbeds of pestilence just waiting to infect their systems.
Many people still avoid shareware for that reason.
I've been downloading files for more than 15 years, and not only have I never gotten an infected file from shareware, I don't know anyone who has, either. The vast majority of virus infections have come from the disks that come from software manufacturers. If you so much as opened the file, it would erase your hard disk. Never mind the relative impossibility of encoding such a virus into a mail message that could be opened by a CompuServe viewer, an America Online viewer, Windows' Terminal program, and all browsers. In this case, the warning was the virus.