Thompson: Well, I would argue that the most successful defensive battle against Microsoft was Intuit. Nobody makes any money in open source, so I don’t know how you declare that a success. But clearly, Intuit doubled down and said, "Look we’re going to out-innovate Microsoft. We’re going to run harder than they are to deliver a series of capabilities that are very compelling to our user base." And guess what? Microsoft had to acquiesce, pull in their horns and work somewhere else.

IDG: So is that a model for you?

Thompson: I think that is a wonderful, wonderful example.

IDG: Are you still thinking of holding back Norton 360 (Symantec’s upcoming competitor to Windows Live OneCare) until next year?

Thompson: It’s less about when the code is going to be ready. When’s the right time to launch the product?

The code is still targeted for being done in September. We’ll do our beta program this summer. Based upon the feedback we get there, the things we have to do, we’ll see whether we meet the current target. If it moves off that target, then you have to ask yourself the question, do you really want to introduce it in the Christmas selling season? That might create some confusion with other products that are already in the market.

IDG: One issue really came to people’s attention during the Sony rootkit incident: software vendors, or people providing you with technology, not letting you know what’s going on with your computer. Microsoft has gotten in trouble just in the last few weeks over Windows Genuine Advantage notification.

Thompson: I don’t think people are doing it for malicious intent. I think that’s the real issue that you have to get at. What is the intent of what someone might be doing with a capability embedded within your machine? Oftentimes it’s to try to deliver a better level of service. It’s to try to provide insight back to the manufacturer so they can improve the product, as opposed to, "I want to do keystroke logging."

So I think people need to step away from the fact that perhaps there was some piece of detective capability on the machine, to what was the intent and how did the company respond when it was made public. And I think Sony acted very responsibly, frankly.

IDG: Do you think this is something that the software industry in general could maybe pay a little more attention to, or do you think these are just exceptions? It sounds like it’s not really something that is on your mind.