"I have to say that I admire Microsoft's optimism.

"I would perhaps be more cautious than Fathi because in the last five years, the number of hackers and researchers who are examining Microsoft's code for vulnerabilities with ever greater intensity has increased. Furthermore, we have seen a number of legitimate security companies (including some who may have a vested interest in debunking Microsoft's status as a security player) put efforts into finding flaws in Microsoft's code.

"What isn't in doubt is that there will continue to be flaws found in Microsoft Vista.

Michael Silver, analyst, Gartner Inc.

"While the number of critical holes is important, for enterprises it would be nice if they had one or more months with no critical issues on Vista. That could actually have more of an impact in reducing the cost of testing and deploying fixes than reducing the overall number, because it would mean fewer test and deployment cycles.