Security issues OS: wasn't this expected?

The amount of time we leave our computers connected to the net is increasing. The scope of things that we can do online is increasing. This is common knowledge now. We stay connected to the internet longer than ever before. What started off with an occassional dial-up (a typical home user) has now reached a stage where it doesn't cost anything to leave our machines connected (or even downloading something off the net all the time). Did Mr. Gates not not expect this while designing Windows XP?

I remember reading stuff from his book "The Road Ahead" where he showed us a kaliedoscope pointed at the future: Optical fibers, huge memory, faster computers, internet everywhere, etc. Someone who sees so much ahead into the future couldn't sense the need for strong security features in an OS? That too when it runs on around 80% of all the computers in the world?

Or is all this just a big trick to keep M$ and other related businesses running? Windows Vista eh? Lets see what trick you got in that hat of yours Mr. Gates. First beta release of Vista (previously looonghorn) shows that nothing radically new has been put in place for security. Many things (graphics, trash levels, etc) are already available in OS X and seemed like they are nicked (whats new about that eh?). Not good!