[_carbyau_]

It is true that however you measure it there is a lot more software now.

But the phrase "barely existed" has connotations of struggle. As though it was close to not existing at all.

No one says "cars barely existed in the 1930's" or "humanity barely existed pre 1600" (world population ~0.5 billion).

By 1999 consumer software definitively existed and was thriving just fine even if it was comparatively early days to what we have now.