Heh, I had a bet with myself that the first swipe would be a "Why not just get an iPad instead of a knock-off?" comment. Guess I lost that one. I really wasn't thinking about the vulnerability aspect, because Microsoft has come a long way on that issue and is really doing well now.
If Win8 is as far ahead of Win7 as Win7 was ahead of XP, they'll do well.
“”Why not just get an iPad instead of a knock-off?” “
I don’t expect a solid notepad from Microsoft but instead from other companies using either windows or some version of linux. I expect they’ll have a better price point as well.
Arbitrary code execution is common problem to many different OS’s. Security is a multi-faceted problem and any single defense isn’t adequate.