Probably he meant that Microsoft was not the same Microsoft as it is now. In the same way as having @gmail.com account let us feel "special" 15 years ago and Google was operating under "Don't be evil" flag. Things are changing.
Well ... TCP/IP was not yet the standard, the Internet was very different there. Microsoft then and Microsoft today is the same deal: They want to earn money. And most likely, then, they were more ruthless than today.
What he wants is simplicity he can understand. 286 had a processor architecture with a security model everyone could understand.
