Symantec Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Thompson has had a bumpy ride over this past year. He closed one of the largest software company acquisitions in history—last year’s US$10.2 billion purchase of Veritas Software—and has been dealing with executive departures and a company reorganization. But perhaps the most serious disruption of all has come from a formidable new competitor into the company’s security software business: Microsoft.

Thompson recently invited the IDG News Service to his company’s unpretentious Cupertino headquarters (the 16,000-employee company shares an address with a law firm and an electronics marketer) to share his thoughts on Microsoft and security, and to explain which Microsoft competitor he sees Symantec emulating in its upcoming fight. Hint: It’s not Red Hat.

IDG News Service: Where are you most worried about competing with Microsoft?

John Thompson: I’m not worried about Microsoft at all. Let’s be clear about that. If anything, my focus is on making sure we can deliver the level of innovation and the level of visibility or of capabilities that we always have. And to the extent that Microsoft plays fairly, there is a level playing field and I don’t worry about Microsoft. If they do something that is unfair, clearly we will be watching, and I’m sure others will as well.

Microsoft is synonymous with a lot of things in the software and technology industry. Security is not one of them. And they’ve got a long way to go to demonstrate not only capability, but to deliver and build a reputation of being able to support a vast array of users in that regard.

IDG: They’ve changed, though.

Thompson: Have they? In what way?

IDG: Just in the marketing alone. The fact that they’re talking about security.

Thompson: Well, I think that’s good for the whole industry. And the fact that Microsoft is going to put enormous money behind raising the awareness and consciousness that people have that they need to secure their connected experience. That’s good for Microsoft, but by the way, that’s good for us. That’s good for the world at large. So I don’t think that is necessarily a manifestation of a change in Microsoft. That’s a manifestation of the realization that awareness is an important element of getting people to act.

IDG: You’ve said for a while that innovation is where you want to compete, but people who have had success against Microsoft—and I’m thinking of IBM and the open-source community, for example—have had luck in creating partnerships. Are there key partnerships that you have?