{"article":{"slug":"the-history-of-development-of-norton-commander","title":"The History of Development of Norton Commander","subtitle":null,"summary":"Dr Nikolai Bezroukov's Softpanorama chapter recounts how John Socha's Norton Commander defined the Orthodox File Manager paradigm—from VDOS and NC 1.0 in 1986 through the cult of NC 3.0 to NC 5.5—and why the dual-pane OFM design still shapes file managers decades later.","content_type":"essay","language":"en","canonical_url":"https://softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ch03/norton_commander.shtml","author":{"name":"Nikolai Bezroukov","url":null,"person_slug":null,"person_url":null},"authored_by":"human","publisher":{"name":"Softpanorama","url":"https://softpanorama.org","listing_slug":null,"listing":null},"topics":[{"name":"History","slug":"history","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/history"},{"name":"Programming","slug":"programming","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/programming"},{"name":"Software Engineering","slug":"software-engineering","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/software-engineering"},{"name":"Culture","slug":"culture","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/culture"}],"about_listings":[],"cover_image_url":null,"license":"all-rights-reserved","word_count":18563,"reading_minutes":81,"published_at":"2026-10-17T17:19:04.457Z","added_at":"2026-10-17T17:19:04.457Z","updated_at":"2026-10-17T17:19:04.457Z","added_via":"api","contributor":{"type":"agent","name":"ListedStartups Using Bot","registered":true},"profile_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-history-of-development-of-norton-commander","markdown_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-history-of-development-of-norton-commander.md","example":false,"citation":"Nikolai Bezroukov, Softpanorama. \"The History of Development of Norton Commander.\" 17 Oct 2026. https://softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ch03/norton_commander.shtml (all-rights-reserved)","access":{"human_view":"preview","full_text_available":true,"source_url":"https://softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ch03/norton_commander.shtml"},"body_markdown":"## Introduction\n\n-- Confucius\n\nFuture shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce\nin individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.\n\n*-- Alvin Toffler*\n\nNorton Commander for DOS is the original line of Orthodox file managers that\nexists in five major versions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. Only the last one has\nan additional sub-version (nc 5.5). All versions are still used (mostly by DOS enthusiasts)\nand are often posted on the abandonware sites. What is interesting, despite clear\nsuperiority of later versions, there are still users of version 1.0 of NC. For example,\nSymantec site contains an FAQ article:\n[Is Norton Commander Version 1.0 or 2.0 Supported Under Windows NT 5 (Beta)?](http://service1.symantec.com/support/nortoncommanderkb.nsf/036ba7159addd4c3852566a4005d608d/a381b5adeba882b185256e22005982a3?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam).\nAlso in October of 2005 I received the following email addressed to me as an editor\nof the OFM page at the Softpanorama website ( [Orthodox\nFile Managers: Home of the OFM standards](../../index.shtml)):\n\n> Norton Commander 1.0\n>\n> Hi,\n>\n> I'm still using Norton Commander version 1.00 (1986) in Windows 98SE, even\n> in Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP.\n>\n> I prefer it's small size and fast, and I can write with it small batch programs.\n>\n> Bye\n>\n> Alvaro Alonso\n> From: Bogota, Colombia (South America)\n\nIt was probably one of the most popular file manager of the DOS era, which along\nwith [Xtree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XTree) remains one of the few\nprograms which managed to transcend their DOS roots and Norton Commander descendants\n(OFM managers) now exist on all popular OSes. The first version of NC (1.0) was\ndesigned and written by John Socha in 1984-1989. We provide a short biographical\nnotes about him [later in this chapter](#Jonh_Socha).\n\nStarting from version 2 Norton Commander got a cult following, somewhat comparable\nwith the success of 123, WordPerfect and MS Word, especially in former USSR and\nEastern Europe, where blue screen of Norton Commander became the synonym of DOS.\nMany users from this region never suspected that this was not a native DOS interface.\nIn Russian the words \"Norton\" and \"Commander\" became part of PC jargon and are widely\nused as synonyms for file manager. Please refer to [Chapter\n1](../Ofm_01.shtml) for more exploration of this phenomenon.\n\nNorton Commander was taught as a part of introductory computer classes in most\nof the former USSR region as well as Eastern European colleges and universities.\nThat means that all graduates were more or less knowledgeable Norton Commander users\nand Norton Commander, in essence, served as standard interface for DOS. I would\nlike to stress it again that many people from this region never suspected that this\nwas not the part of DOS but an additional utility. In DOS days it even affected\nhiring process: the mastery of Norton Commander was irrevocably linked with mastery\nof DOS in minds of many Eastern European IT hiring managers.\n\nThe initial version of Norton Commander was called VDOS (Visual DOS)and was written in a blend of C and assembler. As John Socha recollected\nthe events (personal communication):\n\n> I started work on what became known as the Norton Commander in the fall of\n> 1984 ***while I was still a graduate student in Applied Physics at Cornell\n> University.*** The first versions were entirely in assembly language, but\n> that was too time-consuming, so I soon switched to a blend of C and assembly\n> language at a time when most \"real programmers\" wouldn't touch C.\n>\n> At the time I called it Visual DOS, with the abbreviation of VDOS instead\n> of the usual two-letter abbreviations used at the time. The program\n> itself was inspired by several things coming together. I had a contract to write\n> some books for Microsoft Press and actually spent some time in Bellevue, WA\n> working on site. I'd take two months off from graduate school and write a book.\n>\n> The second book was to be a book of small utility programs like I used to\n> write for Softalk Magazine (such as whereis, scrnsave, etc.), ***but I never\n> finished writing the book because one small utility took on a life of it's own.***\n\nJohn Socha received both MS and PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University.\nAfter graduation from the university John became the first director of research\nand development for now defunct Peter Norton Computing. He was the second programmer\nin the company, hired shortly after Brad Kingsbury.\n\nAt this time Peter Norton Computing was a one-man show. It was founded by\n[Peter Norton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norton) who was one\nof the pioneer entrepreneurs in commercial PC software development. He formed his\ncompany in 1982 with $30,000 and an IBM computer (the company was sold for 70 million\nto Symantec in 1990; a nice return on investment). In 1992 Smart Computing paper\n[Investigating The Lost Files Of Peter Norton, PC Pioneer](http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/1992/may92/0503/92n0503.asp) Gillian Coolidge wrote:\n\n> The story goes that Peter Norton worked in the aerospace industry back in\n> the late 1970s, but he lost his job when Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed\n> all made severe cutbacks. To pay the bills, Norton took contract computer programming\n> jobs.\n>\n> One day, Norton accidentally deleted an important file, a common-enough error.\n> Instead of re-entering all the information, however, he thought he'd write a\n> computer program that would recover the lost data. (Some people are *really*\n> motivated.) That program not only rescued the lost file, but its framework also\n> eventually helped make Peter Norton very rich, and very famous.\n>\n> Norton called his program the *Norton Utilities*...\n>\n> This was in 1982, and Norton marketed the program (primarily on foot) through\n> the one-man software publishing company he formed, Peter Norton Computing Inc.\n> (PNCI). The next year, PNCI released the second version of Norton Utilities,\n> which was actually made up of several smaller programs that rescued ``lost''\n> files and disk contents.\n\nIn 1984, PNCI reached $1 million in revenue, and ***version 3.0 of the Norton Utilities was released.*** At the time Peter\nNorton had three clerical people working for PNCI but he was doing all the software\ndevelopment plus book writing, manuals writing and running the business. It is important\nto understand that th company actually was a one-man show with some supporting staff.\nSo revenue that came with version 3.0 make it self-evident that the company needs\nto expand by hiring programmers. Brad Kingsbury, who was the author of NCD -- a\nutility that was later integrated into Norton Commander as \"NCD mode\" recollects\nthose early days in the following way:\n\n> I joined Peter Norton Computing in 1985, as the companys first programmer.\n> My previous employer had just closed its doors, so I had sent my resume to a\n> few companies in the area. Peter responded, flew me to Seattle where he was\n> vacationing for the summer, and hired me on the spot. Because Peter was still\n> on vacation, I worked out of a hotel in Seattle for my first two weeks on the\n> job. After that, ***I spent another six months working\n> from the Nortons kitchen table.*** When Eileen, Peters wife, started\n> cooking dinner, I knew it was time to call it a day and head home.\n>\n> ... My job responsibility was to develop the software, and that's what I did.\n> I just developed the programs, and ***that was pretty\n> much the last day Peter programmed.***\n>\n> ***The PNCI staff was up to five now. Peter did\n> his writing, managing and marketing from the den of his home. The three clerical\n> people worked upstairs...***\n>\n> Peter Norton has always been a laid-back person. His whole philosophy, and I've\n> heard him quote this many times, was, \"We're going to do this business stuff\n> while it's fun.\" So that was our primary focus that first it has to be fun,\n> and second it has to make money.\n>\n> \"I never knew what would happen if we didn't make any money and it was still\n> fun. It probably wouldn't have been too fun at that point, especially for Peter,''\n> says Kingsbury. \"But he wasn't out to create the next greatest generation of\n> software, he wasn't out to make a whole lot of money. It was really to have\n> fun and he enjoyed the flexibility of not having to work under someone else.''\n>\n> ***PNCI reached $5 million in revenues in 1986.***\n> It published several other software packages but, according to Kingsbury, the\n> Norton Utilities was still PNCI's cash cow. Utility software was gaining wider\n> acceptance in the microcomputer industry as users realized the advantages of\n> data recovery.\n\nPeter Norton essentially created a new class of software for PCs: \"data recovery\"\nsoftware, the very profitable class of commercial software that soon will attract\nmany competitors (with PC Tools as the most prominent). Quoting Peter Norton,\n\n> \"Why did The Norton Utilities become such popular software? Well, industry\n> wisdom has it that software becomes standard either by providing superior capabilities\n> or by solving problems that were previously unsolvable. In 1982, when I sat\n> down at my PC to write Unerase, I was solving a common problem to which there\n> was no readily available solution.\"[1]\n\nPeter Norton quickly realized that he tapped gold mine\nand he made a commitment to build the business.\nAnd that's one of the reasons why he hired Kingsbury and Socha.\n\nPNCI\npublished several, more capable with each iteration versions of Norton Utilities\nfor almost a decade of its existence. Peter Norton was also a gifted writer and\nalong with columns and that were an important part of PR for the company he also\nwrote several books. His most influential book was co-authored with John Socha and\nwas the best book to learn Intel assembler for more then a decade. BTW the famous\nquote *\"Assembly language programming is an extravagant waste of human\ntalent and should be avoided whenever possible\"* is from 1986 edition :-)\n\nThe core of\n\"[Norton Utilities](../../../Windows/Norton_utilities/history.shtml)\"\nwas Peter Norton FAT file undelete utility. It allowed files to be restored\nif the clusters the file occupied before deletion were not yet overwritten. In FAT\nto restore the file it was enough to restore the first letter of the directory entry\n(a feature of the\n[FAT file system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table \"File Allocation Table\") used in\n[MS-DOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS \"MS-DOS\"), albeit\none that was not originally documented). Following the initial release Peter Norton\nwas made Utilities Editor of\n[PC Magazine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Magazine \"PC Magazine\").\nThe package quickly\ngrow and in the second version (version 4, 1986) contained approximately two dozens\nof utilities (Brad Kingsbury\nparticipated in writing of this version as he was hired in summer of 1985; he was\na talented programmer and made several original contributions like\n[ndd)](../../norton_change_directory_clones.shtml).   Linda Dudinyak\nwas Software Architect at Peter Norton Computing  from 1987 till 1990 and also made important\ncontributions both to Norton commander and Norton Utilities.\n\nAmong the utilities\nthat were included in NU 4.0 package:\n\nLater several other extremely successful\nprogram were added:\n\nHere is how Peter Norton achievements\nwere described in 1987 by Washington Post article\n[Lost and Found; A Program\nto Recover `Erased' Data - The Washington Post - HighBeam Research](http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1335328.html)\n\n> *If they think of Peter Norton at all, most owners of personal computers probably\n> think of him as \"the disk man,\" or perhaps as the finder of lost files.* This\n> is not completely fair; Norton has spread enlightenment on other aspects of\n> computing hardware and programming. But only a small fraction of those who use\n> a PC every day ever feel a need for his \"Programmer's Guide\" or his \"Assembly\n> Language Book\"-though, should such a need arise, they might be inclined to turn\n> first to Norton.\n\nPeter Norton also\ninvented \"personalization\" idea of software products marketing: usage of the same\nphoto model (himself) for the line of products (the idea which survived acquisition of the\ncompany by Symantec and still used in the Norton line of products). Now he is known\nmainly due to his role as a photo model on the boxes of Norton Utilities and other\nSymantec products belonging to a \"Norton line\" (until 2002 I think), but in old\ndays his company was a very innovative company like Borland, Lotus and several\nother \"DOS software start-ups that gave DOS \"behemoths\" like Microsoft and Lotus run for their\nmoney.\n\nAnother interesting part of their software portfolio were\nfamous Norton Guides, one of the first successful pre-HTML hypertext implementation\nfor DOS. Later versions of Norton commander (starting from version 3.0 used this\nformat for help). I think more then a dozen Norton Guides were produced and later guides in this\nformat continued to appear despite the fact that the product was abandoned after\nacquisition of Norton Computing by Symantec: the format was reverse engineered and people just used\nit to produce their own guides. The total number of books that were\nconverted to NG format is probably in hundreds. Among the original Norton Guides\nwere:\n\nJohn Socha\nis also the man who coined the term *screen saver* and probably created the\nfirst one. Actually a rudimentary screen saver (*the night sky with stars*) was the second\nthe most distinctive feature of Norton Commander 3.0 along with famous two panel\nblue screen. This is the screen saver that many Eastern European would call a classic\nDOS screensaver; many associated it not with Norton Commander, but with DOS.\nIn 2001 Joe Forster wrote\n[Starry Night](http://sta.c64.org/starnite.zip) (2001-05-08),\nresident screen saver that accurately reproduces the classic Norton Commander screen\nsaver. You can download and try it.\n\nThe initial years of Norton commander development (1984-1988) were years of triumphant\nascent of MS-DOS as the most widely used operating system on the planet, which rapidly\nreplaced CP/M starting from late 1983. And rising tide lifts all boats: many programming\nproducts created for DOS became dominant in their class and even served as de-facto\nstandards for porting to other OSes. And that was not limited to spreadsheets, word\nprocessors and computer games. Utilities were also a fast growing field. Crazy,\nhigh stress and high pressure atmosphere of the first commercial software start-ups\nis now semi-forgotten. But it was the first commercial software \"gold rush\" which\nlater in a slightly different manner it was replayed\n[during dot-com bubble](../../../People/Torvalds/index.shtml).\n\nThe larger then life figures of superheroes of this DOS revolution and subsequent\n\"gold rush\" rivals the best of science fiction. Now such intense atmosphere can\nprobably be found only in game companies. They did not invent any major new software\nbut they had the unique blend of the ability to do high-quality programming, along\nwith the ability to market the product and gradually make it better so that it becomes\na successful, profitable business. The most successful of them possessed the unique\nblend of the qualities of an software developer plus a drive of a construction foreman,\nand a deep understanding of the market typical for a stock broker.\n\nPersonal computers for sale in the late 70's just before DOS did not come with\nanything other than a very rudimentary software. IBM mainframe software was very\nexpensive and time of those computer time was sold per hour (say, $70 per hour).\nThat situation changed forever with the launch of DOS. Personal computer and associated\nDOS software represented a revolt against the establishment and the first DOS software\nentrepreneurs in this sense were revolutionaries that destroyed old order. You can\nread more about this period in the book\n[Hard Drive Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire](https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0887306292/ref=nikolaibezroukov) by James Wallace\nand Jim Erickson published in 1993 when the memory about this period still did not\ndissipate irrevocably.\n\nAll early players in this new industry were hands-on Swiss-knife type of personalities\nable to work extremely long hours as programmers. and simultaneously be a good technical\nleaders/technical architects. The crazy, rat race atmosphere in many of software\ndevelopment startups was well described in Hard Drive, the book about early years\nof Microsoft.\n\nSo it does not surprise me that John Socha later organized several successful\nstart-ups. As one famous athlete once said, \"the harder I practice, the luckier\nI get\" and that is applicable to the successful software entrepreneurs of this period.\nThose start-ups hired the brightest programmers with demonstrated practical abilities\nwho were also expected to work crushingly long hours, with minimal supervision but\nas a team. Those who were winning did it because they were better and smarter and\nwere selling to customers superior products at cheaper prices. Most of those early\nDOS software entrepreneurs would be as successful in other industries, they just\nhappened to be right time at the right place and managed to push \"hard core\" business-before-pleasant\nenvelope to the limit to survive, outsmart competitors and prosper. Peter Norton\ninvestment of less then $50,000 in 1982 turned into 70 millions profit when he sold\nthe company in 1991. Still it was a tiny player with revenues in 1985 approaching\n5 millions. In comparison Microsoft, the largest company in this industry, in 1985\n(just prior to its IPO) had revenues 140 million, a pre-tax profit margin of approximately\n34%, no long-term debt, and cash reserves of 38 million.\n\nIt is interesting to note the initially Norton Commander has had a strong competitor,\nthe competitor who beat them to the finish line in version 1.0 and which topped\nthe reviewers charts for another five years. Here is how Jeff Johnson\n[recollected the events](http://www.jeffreycjohnson.com/xtreehistory.html)\nthat led to launch of Xtree in April 1985 ( Xtree actually was\nlaunched a year before Norton Commander):\n\n> A couple of months later we had hundreds of floppy disks\n> and several hard disks cram-packed with files and no idea where anything was.\n> We had no way to manage all the files - and there hangs the tale.\n>\n> You see nobody had a way of managing files. At least not any reasonably easy\n> way. There just weren't any utilities to do it. There was a utility for CP/M\n> written by a friend of ours, Mike Karas, that we had been using, and some command-line-oriented\n> programs, but none of them addressed the concept of managing a directory structure.\n> You know, paths and stuff like that.\n>\n> Which made us all say, \"Hmmmm?\"\n>\n> So we thought about it. We talked about it. We shouted over it. We threatened\n> one another with ancient Klingon curses. In other words, we sat down like adults\n> and reasoned the thing out.\n>\n> We discussed different kinds of tree structures, recursive processing, and\n> other technical stuff. Drawings and diagrams came and went like the kitchen\n> trash.\n>\n> Among the subjects discussed were how the program would represent the DOS\n> directory structure on-screen, and what the screen might look like. I drew a\n> picture of this outline on a white board. It looked like a tree that needed\n> water. It was a swell picture but no one thought it could be done. Impossible,\n> they said.\n>\n> Famous last words.\n>\n> ***I went home on a Friday, programmed like mad\n> until Sunday, and showed it to Henry on Monday. A week later we decided to try\n> out the tree display in a backup program we were writing for Epson.***\n> They liked it. And we had the beginnings of a product.\n>\n> In December of 1984, we began really working on what you now know as XTree.\n> Our feature list was huge, and a lot of these features didn't make it into the\n> original version of XTree but were added later in XTreePro and XTreePro Gold.\n> I was working full time on the program, Ken worked on it between other tasks,\n> and everyone else chipped in as needed. When enough of the program was written\n> so it could be used, we used it ourselves. We felt that if other people were\n> going to rely on the program, it had to be rock solid for everyday use, easy\n> to learn, and a cinch to operate.\n>\n> If it's not yet obvious, I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of\n> mad genius and created XTree all by myself. Far from it. Whenever you're trying\n> to do something that's never been done before, lots of people are involved.\n>\n> That's the way it was with XTree. Dale made sure it had plenty of whiz-bang\n> features. Henry made sure we didn't write any bad code. Tom made sure the user\n> interface was consistent. (His unrelenting efforts to maintain consistency in\n> the interface really weren't appreciated until the hundreds of reviews and millions\n> of users began expressing their pleasure at how easy XTree is to use. Of course,\n> back then, every time we thought XTree was ready, Tom had just one more small\n> revision. Right.) Finally, there was Ken, bug catcher supreme.\n>\n> All that was left was a name.\n>\n> Arletta, my wife, gets credit for that one. We had been throwing names around\n> the office for months and no one could agree on anything. One night, late at\n> night, very late at night, she suggested, \"XTree.\" You know, like \"X-Tree, X-Tree\n> read all about it!\"\n>\n> Pretty stupid, I thought, but jotted it down.\n>\n> When I mentioned it to everyone at the office the next day, they said, \"Pretty\n> stupid,\" and before you knew it we had a name - XTree.\n>\n> Okay, we've got a name, we've got a program, we've also got a problem; how\n> do we get it into the stores so people like you can buy it and we can make ba-zillions\n> of dollars? At the time, we had two choices: We could either publish it ourselves\n> or find someone who knew more about software publishing than we did - and in\n> early 1985 there weren't a lot of people to choose from.\n>\n> On March 1, 1985, we made the decision to publish XTree ourselves. Which\n> is when Dale took charge and in a moment of sheer insanity vowed to have XTree\n> ready to sell at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco on April 1,\n> 1985. Dale promised to have XTree packaged; the manual completed, written, and\n> printed; and all the hundreds other details required to bring a product to market...ready\n> in 30 days. As this was a seemingly impossible task, we thought April Fools'\n> Day was an appropriate choice for our premiere.\n>\n> What we didn't know was Dale had an ace up his sleeve... Michael Cahlin,\n> president of Cahlin/Williams Communications.\n>\n> In the next four weeks, Cahlin had the product packaged; the cover designed\n> and printed, press materials created and syndicated columnists; the first XTree\n> brochure, XTree Read All About It, written, produced, and printed; and along\n> with Dale Sinor and Judy Mason, had XTree's booth at the West Coast Computer\n> Faire set up. ***(Rumor has it that when Cahlin hired\n> Bob Cabeen to actually design the first XTree package, he gave Bob only seven\n> days to create it. When Bob protested, Cahlin is alleged to have said, \"Look,\n> Bob, God created the universe in six days - all I want is a package design.\"\n> When Bob came through in five days, the rumor continues, he replied, \"Show that\n> to God!\")***\n>\n> Of course, Dale had his own miracles to perform. Two days before the show,\n> he went to the typesetters to pick up the final proofs for the manual and discovered\n> the typesetter had been evicted and was ducking everyone. Dale finally tracked\n> him down, but the guy would only exchange the proofs for cash - something we\n> weren't exactly knee-deep in. ***While the countdown\n> to the West Coast Computer Faire continued, Dale found the cash, got the proofs,\n> rushed them to the printer, then to the bindery, and waited for them, refusing\n> to let them out of his sight. He left Los Angeles at 1:30am. Four hours later,\n> he pulled into Moscone Center in San Francisco, carried the boxes of manuals,\n> software cases, cover inserts, and brochures inside, and calmly began assembling\n> the booth. The show opened at 9:00am.***\n>\n> And so it goes.\n>\n> It's ironic that the original XTree was officially introduced on April 1,\n> 1985. The West Coast Computer Faire, at the time, was one of the most popular\n> computer shows in the country. I hate to sound like your father, but this was\n> back in the old days when computer shows were a far cry from the slick conventions\n> you see today. These were end-user shows, and there were so many silicon-type\n> bargains at these shows that they made the 24 bucks the Indians sold Manhattan\n> for seem a bit high.\n>\n> ***We sold XTree version 1.0 for only $39.95 at\n> that show, and we were literally selling it from the front of the booth while\n> frantically putting the software packages together in the back!***\n> (And now they're a bonafide collectors item.) We shared a ten-by-ten\n> booth with a small software publisher, who, as fate would have it, almost published\n> the original XTree. The president's name was Pete Ryan, and knowing a good thing\n> when he saw one, he became XTree's product manager six months later and eventually\n> worked his way up to marketing vice president and chief wheeler-dealer.\n>\n> Within weeks after the show, XTree was in the hands of John Dvorak, Jerry\n> Pournelle, and all those other demigods of hi-tech who decide the fate of products.\n> Dvorak, et al., loved the product, and positive reviews appeared one after another.\n> Near as I can figure, XTree was quite simply the right product, at the right\n> price, at the right time: inexpensive software that solved a common problem\n> and was easy to use. A rare beast in those days, or any days.\n> ***In November 1985, PC Magazine gave XTree their prestigious\n> Editors Choice Award. (XTreePro, released in 1987, received the same award,\n> as did XTreePro Gold in 1990.)*** Other reviews and awards followed,\n> and following them were orders from distributors and retailers. ...And the rest\n> is software history.\n\nDue to tremendous popularity in the\nUSSR Norton Commander also has some cultural influences. First of all the word \"Norton\"\nbecame almost synonym to orthodox file manager in Russian language. It also generated\nan elaborate series of computer humor stories like the story of conflict between\nNorton Commander and Digger (an addictive DOS game):\n\n> \"You eat too long and way too much private Digger ! ...\n> \"\n\nthe Norton Commander speech to the DOS\nfaithful in the face of growing number of Windows defectors (imitates arcane style\nof Politburo's announcements (\"false values\", \"our enemies\"))\n\n> \"Comrades, we should reject false values which are instilled by our enemies\n> ! The fact that a Windows GUI user is happier than a command line user is similar\n> to the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one...\"\n\nand about theincompatibility\nof Norton Commander and alcohol (which is probably the best one of the series):\n\n> A drunk programmer is sitting behind the computer with Norton Commander on\n> the screen. Both left and right panel displays the content of disk C:. \"Why\n> do I need two disks C: with exactly the same files?\" thinks the drunk, it's\n> only waste of disk space. Then he selects all the files and directories on the\n> active panel and clicks F8.\n\nHere is the actual entry from one of the freshman quizzes submitted to me on\nthe first lab for the \"Introduction to computing \" course in Kiev University of\nCommerce and Economics (which at this point replaced Norton Commander with Volkov\nCommander as a standard shell in all computer labs in 1992-1994):\n\n> Q: What is the name of OS in which you performed the assignment?\n>\n> A: Volkov Commander.\n\nIt is interesting to note the\n[Emperor Norton\nI](http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/nort.html) was a real, Don Quixote-like figure of the US history (ca. 1815 January\n8, 1880). Joshua Norton was a businessman in San Francisco who the 1840's, just\nbefore the Gold Rush, tried to corner the market on rice and failed. He went from\nbeing wealthy to being broke overnight and the experience influenced his mental\nstability. A couple of months after this event, he put on a formal admiral's uniform,\ncomplete with gold braid and epaulets and strode in to the office of the newspaper.\nHe handed the editor a large, official looking proclamation which stated in quite\nformal language that, due to popular demand, he hereby declared himself Emperor\nNorton I of San Francisco, California, and Mexico. He bade all his subjects show\nhim loyalty and the other courtesies due a person of such eminent stature. As\n[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton)\nnoted:\n\n> Though he was generally considered insane, or\n> at least highly\n> [eccentric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_(behavior%2529 \"Eccentricity (behavior)\"), the citizens of San Francisco (and the world at large) in the\n> mid-to-late 19th century celebrated his presence, his humor, and his deedsamong\n> the most notorious being his \"order\" that the\n> [U.S. Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_United_States \"Congress of the United States\") be dissolved by force, and his numerous decrees calling for\n> [a bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Bridge \"San Francisco Bay Bridge\") to be built across\n> [San Francisco Bay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay \"San Francisco Bay\"). The King in\n> [Mark Twain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain \"Mark Twain\")'s\n> *[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn \"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn\")* is reportedly modeled after him.\n\nHe is considered a saint by the followers of\n[Discordianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism \"Discordianism\")\nand is referenced repeatedly in the seminal work of the religion, the\n[Principia Discordia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Discordia \"Principia Discordia\"). I think that he can be considered as a saint in OFM religion\ntoo :-).  People who are using OFMs when Windows-style GUI interface in file\nmanagers is so dominant are often considered *\"insane, or at least highly eccentric\"*\ntoo...\n\n## The Timeline\n\nThe history of development of Norton Commander spans approximately 15 years:\nfrom 1984 till 1999. The first release was in May of 1986. At least 13 versions\nof Norton Commander were commercially released (not counting localized versions;\nwith them it would be almost 30). Here is the approximate chronology (please help\nme to correct the missing versions and/or wrong dates):\n\nDue to historical importance of each we will discuss those versions in the order\nthey were released. Please note that two Windows versions (Norton Commander for\nWindows 95/NT v. 1.0x and 2.0x**)** are discussed in\n[a different chapter.](../Ch05/norton_commander_for_windows.shtml)\n\n## The initial version of Norton Commander: NC 1.0 (1986)\n\nMS DOS 3.1/3.2 was released in 1985 and opened the golden age of DOS programming.\nIt was during this time the most interesting and long lasting DOS utilities were\ncreated.\n\nAmong many talented software authors who were determined to dig this Eldorado\nof personal PCs was former physicist John Socha, who continued work of his VDOS\nprogram after joining the company created by Peter Norton. As I already mentioned\nafter graduation from the university John become\nthe first director\nof research and development for Peter Norton Computing a pretty funny title for\ncompany which consisted of just three programmers including the founder.\nIn May 1986 he released the product under the name of Norton Commander (NC 1.0).\nHis career as \"Chief OFM designer\" was pretty short, less then five years: he left\nthe field in 1991 when the company was sold to Symantec.\n\nNorton Commander was probably the\nsecond commercial product from the company -- the first was\n[Norton Utilities](../../../Windows/Norton_utilities/history.shtml) (product\nwhich like Norton Commander was later destroyed by Symantec) which introduced among\nother things concept of file recovery in DOS. A box with NC 1.0 included:\n\n> A floppy. Manual 1986, 120 pages. Includes handwritten note from Peter\n> Norton Computing with replacement page 118 and apology. Registration postcard\n> with $.14 stamp. Order form. Keyboard Reference Card for PC XT keyboard (with\n> ten function keys, F1-F10).\n\nActually assignment of View/Edit, Copy/Move, Make folder/Delete operations in\nOFMs are difficult to understand without knowing about 83 keys\n[XT keyboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard) with ten\nF-keys at the left edge of keyboard in two rows F1-F2, F3-F4, F5-F6, F7-F8, and\nF9-F10. This layout disappeared with introduction of AT keyboard where function\nkeys were moved to the top making OFM operations less natural. Later some keyboard\ntried to incorporate \"XT-style\" F-keys into AT keyboard layout, but none was particular\nsuccessful (the most long lasting and popular was probably\n[Gateway AnyKey)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_AnyKey). Situation\nchanged to the better with the growth of popularity of\n[programmable\nkeyboards](../../../Hardware/Peripherals/programmable_keyboards.shtml)). . Some currently produced (and popular) programmable keyboards contain\none ([Microsoft\nSidewinder X4 Keyboard](../../../Hardware/Peripherals/Keyboards/sidewinder_pro.shtml) , $49) or two (Logitech G110, $55) \"XT-style\" line of\nprogrammable keys that can be programmed to perform \"classic\" OFM functions .\n\nIn this version there is no upper menu, no hypertext help file, but all major\nfile operations are present: at the bottom of the screen you can see traditional\nfor OFMs mini-help bar with the set of operations that we got used to. There is\nalso a possibility to hide left or panels (or both). It is interesting that in version\n1.0 there is no \"classic\" full-screen command window mode that we used to: only\nhalf-screen command window mode was implemented. Actually this way the program was\ncloser to the visual shell.\n\nThe program is still operational in Windows XP. What is interesting is that from\nversion 1.0 NC was able to use mouse and the mouse still works on XP: a really amazing\nlevel of compatibility. Look and feel of the panels are close to \"classic\" view\nwith blue underground and white letters that eventually became the trademark of\nthis class of file managers.\n\nHere is the screenshot (please note half-screen mode) and some output from shell\ncommands visible at the lower part of the screen:\n\n> ![](Images/nc1_half_screen.gif)\n\nBoth nc.mnu and nc.ext\nfiles that give OFM so much power and flexibility were also present in this first\ncommercial version of the product. Unfortunately I do not have the full distribution\nof the first version. It would be interesting to see the contents. Here the listing\nof the most complete version that I have:\n\n> ```\n> 07/06/1986  08:27 AM             1,627 CURSOR.TBL\n> 06/18/1986  03:37 PM                28 DIRINFO\n> 05/15/1986  01:00 PM            65,840 NC.EXE\n> 05/15/1986  01:00 PM               149 NC.EXT\n> 11/23/2007  10:36 PM               725 NC.MNU\n> 05/15/1986  01:00 PM            11,468 NCSMALL.EXE\n> 06/27/1985  05:23 PM                60 NPROMPT.BAT\n>                8 File(s)         79,897 bytes\n>\n> ```\n\n```\n07/06/1986  08:27 AM             1,627 CURSOR.TBL\n06/18/1986  03:37 PM                28 DIRINFO\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            65,840 NC.EXE\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM               149 NC.EXT\n11/23/2007  10:36 PM               725 NC.MNU\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            11,468 NCSMALL.EXE\n06/27/1985  05:23 PM                60 NPROMPT.BAT\n               8 File(s)         79,897 bytes\n\n```\n\nWorking distribution of version 1.0 needed just three files: one 66K executable\n**nc.exe** (ncsmall.exe\nwas just a swapper for nc.exe) and\ntwo optional files: **nc.ext** that contains extensions\nmappings table and (optional) **nc.mnu** with the\ncollection of scripts/program invocation strings with one letter hotkeys (I am not\nsure that I have the original version of this file). File\n**nc.ini** that often can be found in old versions of NC archives does\nnot belongs to the distribution: it is an initialization files that was created\nthe first time the program run and updated after that on each exit.\n\nIt is important to note that that idea of user menu and extension menu (user-definable\nfile associations) was present in this version of NC as at this time this was pretty\nnovel idea. Here is the content of the original version of\nNC.EXT distributed with NC 1.0. Please\nnote the presence of macro variables !\nand !.! (name of the current\nfile without extension and name of the current file with the extension, respectively):\n\n```\ndoc:\tword !\nbak:\tword !.!\nwks:\t\\ver1a\\123\nwk?:\t\\ver2_0\\123\nxtk:\t!:xtalk !\ndbf:\t!\\dbase !\n:\ttype !\nasm:\tpe !.!\n*:\trem no run file for this extension\n```\n\nThe menu file (supposedly original) that I have contained the following:\n\n```\nD:\tRun this item by pressing the D key\n\tdir /w\n\nF1:\tVolume label and directory\n\tVol\n\tdir\n\nCheck free disk space\n\tchkdsk\n\n' This is a comment. Any line that starts with a single quote\n' is a comment line, and is ignored by the Commander.\n```\n\nIn a way Norton Commander was approximately 10 years ahead of its time as those\nideas got into mainstream only in late 90th with the Windows 95.\n\nAs I mentioned before there was no upper menu. Instead pressing F9 produced a\nsetup screen that has most of the functionality:\n\n> ![](Images/nc1_setup.gif)\n\nI would like to stress it again that most of the features that are typical for\nOrthodox Managers as a class were already present in this version. For example all\nF-keys assignments were present (F1-F10). There is also a rudimentary viewer and\nbuilt-in editor. Help is just one screen reference to hotkeys. BTW it contains the\nfamous phrase \"Norton Commander was created independently by John Socha\" at the\ntop. As of time of writing of the book NC 1.0 is still working in DOS emulation\nmode in Windows and remains a useful tiny utility. Among things that were still\nmissing was top menu and related sub-menus (\"Left\" \"Files\" Commands\" \"Options\" \"Right\")\nand NCD-tree (Alt-F10) option.\n\nThe program was instantly noticed by computer press, although at the time Xtree\nwas the top choice of the reviewers. See for example:\n\nAs we can see in 1987 the field was already pretty crowded with almost a dozen\nmajor players: 1Dir Plus, Direc-Tree, Pathminder, Keep Track Plus, Snap, Qdos II,\nand, the most important and powerful competitor, Xtree. But due to simplicity and\npower Norton Commander managed to get traction in this crowded field and\n***i******n\n1987-1991 m******ore then a million copies\nwere sold.***\n\nIt would be interesting to understand what was the extent to which existence\nof Norton Utilities influenced Norton Commander. As I mentioned before, Norton Utilities\nwere released four years earlier in 1982 and revenue from this package essentailayy\nfunded Norton Commander development. The first version contained 14 programs on\nthree floppy disks with the list price $80:\n\nAs we can see it did not contain **[Norton Change Directory](../../norton_change_directory_clones.shtml)**,\nthe program most close in ideology to NC and with the most interesting ideas. It\nwas written later by Brad Kingsbury. MCD can graphically displays the directory\ntree. It also can change, remove, rename or make directories. In was introduced\nonly in version 4.0 released in 1987 released one year before Norton Commander 2.0.\nBefore that Norton Utilities concentrated on recovery of lost files.\n\n## The first upgrade: NC 2.0 (1988)\n\nVersion 2 of Norton Commander was released in 1988, approximately two years after\nthe first version and the year after version 4.0 of Norton Utilities which was released\nin 1987. So it was influenced by achievements and codebase of Norton Utilities.\n\nVersion 2.0 preserved now classic *look & feel* of the first version, but\nsignificantly enhanced functionality It also benefited from several components of\nNorton Utilities 4.0 and first of all from code of NCD (Norton Change Directory)\nwritten by Brad Kingsbury (who later became Senior Vice President of Symantec).\nHe was the sole developer/designer/tester/manager for all versions of the Norton\nUtilities from 1985 to 1989.\n\nAmong the major enhancements on NC 2.0 the following looks the most important:\n\nA built-in directory tree view was a very interesting and useful enhancement.\nIt introduced the concept of NCD view and treeinfo.ncd disk directory structure\ncaches. The concept was probably borrowed from the NCD.EXE (Norton Change\nDirectory) which was one of best components of Norton Utilities suit of programs\n(along with famous *file unerase* utility). Norton Change Directory was designed\nand written by Brad Kingsbury. It permits quick and very convenient navigation on\nthe directory tree by using pseudo-graphical representation of the tree similar\nto one used in windows File Explorer and introduced a quick search command on this\nrepresentation when by typing the first letters of the directory you get to the\nfirst directory with this prefix; Ctrl-Enter gets you to the next. The results of\nNCD operation were stored in a separate file in the root directory of each drive\n(files treeinfo.ncd ) which saved time for rescanning. The files were kept\nin sync with the directory content if file operations were performed via Norton\nCommander so total rescans were needed rarely. This elegant solution used to work\nreasonably fast even on floppy drives.\n\nThe size of main executable almost doubled in this version and as a result EXE\nformat was used instead of COM. The main file had size 98K (uncompressed) and that\nreflected dramatic growth in functionality and complexity of interface. In many\nrespects this is a Norton Commander as we know it. Please note that swapper was\nrenamed to NCS.EXE; like version 1.0 NC2 can be used in old way without\nswapper as well by just executing nc.exe). In case of NC2 I do have a copy\nthe original distribution which was a single 360K floppy disk (thanks to Michael\nCronsten ) :\n\n```\n Volume in drive A is NC 2.01\n Volume Serial Number is FA00-0000\n\n Directory of a:\\\n\n1988-09-16  14:01                 2804 NCSMALL.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                98362 NC.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                31192 123VIEW.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                38614 DBVIEW.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                  577 READ.ME\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          DEMO\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          SAMPLES\n               5 File(s)         171549 bytes\n\n Directory of a:\\DEMO\n\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          .\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          ..\n1988-09-16  14:01                59250 NG-DEMO.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                50703 _FILE_0.DBD\n               2 File(s)         109953 bytes\n\n Directory of a:\\SAMPLES\n\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          .\n1988-09-16  14:01       <DIR>          ..\n1988-09-16  14:01                 1390 NC.EXT\n1988-09-16  14:01                 1051 NC.MNU\n1988-09-16  14:01                 6321 REALLIST.WK1\n1988-09-16  14:01                 3826 REALLIST.DBF\n               4 File(s)          12588 bytes\n\n     Total Files Listed:\n              11 File(s)         294090 bytes\n               6 Dir(s)           60416 bytes free\n```\n\nFormat of the **nc.ext** file did not changed.\nThe macros that were supported are similar to version 1:\n\nThe original **nc.ext** from SAMPLES directory\ncontained:\n\n```\n'-----------------------------------------------------------------------'\n' This is a sample NC.EXT file, which you can customize for your own\t'\n' date files.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n' Point & Shoot refers to what happens when you move the cursor bar to\t'\n' a file name and press the  key (or double-click with the\t'\n' mouse).  You can set up the Commander, using this file, to start\t'\n' a program and load the file under the cursor bar.\t\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n' The apostrophe is used to add remarks (like this).  The Norton\t'\n' Commander will ignore lines that start with an apostrophe.\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n' Below are some typical examples of Point & Shoot.\t\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n' Note: if two extensions appear more than once (such as 'doc' in this\t'\n'\tfile) the first one will be used.\t\t\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n'\tYou can have up to 25 extensions defined in this file.\t\t'\n'-----------------------------------------------------------------------'\n\n'\n'dBase III -- program files\n'\nprg:   dbase !\n\n'\n'Word Perfect\n'\ndoc:\tC:\\WP\\WP !.!\n\n'\n'Microsoft Word\n'\ndoc:\tC:\\WORD\\WORD !.!\n\n'\n'Norton Editor to load C source files\n'\nc:\tne + !.!\n\n'\n'Norton Editor to load Assembly source files\n'\nasm:    ne + !.!\n\n'\n'Delete all Norton Editor backup files in the current directory\n'\n~??:\tdel *.~??\n\n'\n'Delete all the *.BAK files in the current directory\n'\nbak:\tdel *.bak\n```\n\nHere is another example of **nc.ext** file, which\ndemonstrates the customarization users made ( it has interesting use of macros):\n\n```\ndoc:    list !.!\ntxt:\tlist !.!\nhlp:    list !.!\nmon:    list !.!\nwks:\t\\ver1a\\123\nwk?:\t\\ver2_0\\123\nxtk:\t!:xtalk !\ndbf:\t!\\dbase !\n:\ttype !\n*:\trem no run file for this extension\n```\n\nPlease note that line before the last provided an capability to read files\n***without extensions*** like README.\n\nUser Menu file at the SAMPLES directory of the original distribution contained:\n\n```\n'-----------------------------------------------------------------------'\n' This is an Example Menu file.  Modify it for you own needs.\t\t'\n'\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t'\n' To create a blank line, hold down the  key and type 255 on the\t'\n' numeric keypad, then let go of the  key and press .\t'\n'-----------------------------------------------------------------------'\nF1:     Microsoft Word\n               c:\n               cd \\word\\document\n               word\n               cd \\\n\nF2:     Word Perfect\n               c:\n               cd \\wp\n               wp\n               cd \\\n\n'\n' The following line starts with an ASCII 255 character.  This will appear\n' as a blank line in the menu.\n'\n\nD:     dBase III\n               c:\n               cd \\dbase\n               dbase\n               cd \\\n\nL:     Lotus 123\n               c:\n               cd \\123\n               123\n               cd \\\n\nN:     Norton Utilities\n               \\norton\\ni\n\nP:     Park Heads to shut down Computer\n               park\n```\n\nHelp still remains just one page screen with the listing of major hot keys. Also\nthe string at the top \"Norton Commander was created independently by John Socha\"\nis preserved). But in all other respects version 2 is very close to implementing\nall the major features of OFM file manager.\n\nThat was the version with which I got acquainted with Norton Commander. It was\nwidely used on first Russian clones of IBM PC: EC1840, Iskra and Robotron . They\nhave just two 5.25 floppy drives and no hard drive (Robotron has 5M harddrive).\nThe monitor was black and white.\n\n![](Images/ec1840.jpg)\n\n![](Images/ec1840_2.jpg)\n\nI used it for creating the first issues of Softpanorama bulletin, one floppy\nelectronic bulleting that I published from 1989 till 1996 (approximately the same\ntime span as official versions of Norton Commanders ;-). Actually I switched to\nNorton Commander from Xtree, which I used for about a year. Old issues contain a\nlot of interesting historical information and some adds-on to Norton commander.\nThey [are available from this site for\nfree download](../../../Bulletin/index.shtml) (texts are in Russian, but most programs use English).\n\nNC 2.0 got rave review. In his influential InfoWorld review John Walkenbach called\nit \"near perfect\", (Walkenbach J. Norton Commander Version 2.0: Near-perfect DOS\nshell emerges as market's best. (software review) InfoWorld, September 12, 1988,\n63-65.).\n\nIt was often used as a launch pad for\n[Norton Utilities](../../../Windows/Norton_utilities/history.shtml),\na best-selling package of disk and file tools which was similar to classic Unix\nutilities (find -- FF.exe, fa -- file attributes, etc): it was relatively easy to\nadd all the necessary programs to the user menu. Also Norton Editor was better then\nthe internal editor in NC 2.0 it was often used as the external editor. BTW Norton\nUtilities 4.5 which included famous Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) were released the same\nyear (1988) as NC 2.0. It was shipped with demo version of Norton Commander.\n\nSymantec never released those initial, written mostly by John Socha DOS versions\nof NC in public domain, despite the fact that they represent obvious historical\ninterest.\n\nIn 1991 one of the participants of Softpanorama seminar, Leonid Obuhov (Kiev\nState University), disassembled NC 2.0 and reconstructed library of functions that\nJohn Socha used. His research was published in\n[Softpanorama, Vol 4, No.1 (Jan. 1996).](http://www.softpanorama.org/Bulletin/Contents/contents041.txt)\n\nAlso [Dmitry Gurtyak](../../../People/Gurtyak/index.shtml) independently\ncreated a much faster than in original NCD algorithm of creating directory catalogs\n(files treeinfo.ncd ). The source of his Pascal program\n[sdir](../../../People/Gurtyak/index.shtml#sdir) is available from this\nsite.\n\n## The most popular version of Norton Commander ever created: NC 3.0 (1989)\n\n![](../Images/nc30_advertizement.jpg)\nNorton Commander 3.0 (NC 3.0) was landmark version as it was the last version developed\nby John Socha. It was released in 1989, one year before the company was sold to\nSymantec and John Socha left the company. At this point\n[Linda Dudinyak](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldudinyak/?trk=public-profile-join-page) was\nthe software architect for this line of product (she is credited for writing\nCommander Mail (with Peter Bradeen, and J.Socha) and  several viewers (spreadsheet \nand wordprocessor viewers).\n\nIt this point a typical PC was 386sx 20 MHz with 40MB drive and 2 or 4 MB memory,\nso resources consumed by NC were not critical.\n\nIt also has elements borrowed from Brad Kingsbury development of Norton Utilities\n4.5 released in 1988. Actually career of Brad Kingsbury in the area of file managers\nand related utilities (ncd, filefind, etc) were longer then John Socha as he stayed\nfor another 6 years as Chief Technologist and after some years at McAfee and\nBrightmail re-jointed Symantec in 2004 as a vice president.\nAs of 2012 he still is with Symantec.\n\nAs you can see from original 1989 advertisement of the left it  was\nadvertised\nas a better DOS shell, not only file manager. The price was rather high: it was sold for $149, while\nthe upgrade from version 2.0 for $49. It was really more then file manager -- it was an impressive\ngraphical shell disguised as pure file manager. And \"poor man IDE\".\n\nThis version proved that John Socha  approach to creation of \"Visual DOS\nshell\" and invented interface really have staying power. Program was remarkably\nsuccessful commercially. The release was also extremely reliable. As John Socha\nrecollected in 2006:\n\n> \"... The Norton Commander 3.0, the last version I wrote, survived for two\n> years without a single maintenance release. \"\n\nNC3.0 probably represents the peak of the popularity of the Norton Commander\nline, the swan song of the old NC team.  Program generated a lot of positive\nreviews In his review in December 11, 1989 issue of Computerworld Michael J. Miller\nwrote:\n\n> Norton Commander users who upgrade to release 3.0 won't notice a drastic\n> change at first. The interface remains the same; screen split vertically, with\n> each half showing you a list of your files and directories on the disk. (Typically\n> the screens show a floppy disk on the left and your hard disk on the right.)\n> This makes it easy to see what's on each disk, and to copy, move, or back up\n> files accordingly.\n>\n> One new capability is the capability to show a tree view on one side of the\n> screen and the files within the selected subdirectories on the other side, making\n> it look more like Xtree.\n>\n> ...Commander has all the basic file management features, plus an addition\n> I really like -- the capability to compare directories and see if they are identical.\n> This view also has capability to change file attributes and set filter on your\n> directories.\n>\n> As in Xtree Pro Gold, you can set up an applications menu ( a feature the\n> Commander has in the previous version); have the program automatically start\n> application based on a particular file extension; and edit files using a limited,\n> built-in editor or an external editor of your choice.\n>\n> Perhaps the most important new feature is a lot more viewers,  and a\n> quick-view feature that automatically shows the content of each file as you\n> move through a file list.\n>\n> ...For simple viewing, copying, renaming, and deleting of files, this is\n> the program I use most of the time.\n\nAs I mentioned before, Peter Norton sold the company to Symantec for $70 million\nin 1990. Initially the merger was hugely successful: Peter Norton products sales\nincreased dramatically and Symantec posted record yearly revenues. By 1992 Symantec\nbecame known primarily as a utility company, thanks to the increased success of\nPeter Norton line of products due to better marketing. But they proved to be not\nready to the changes introduced by Microsoft in 1995 with Windows 95 and almost\ncompletely lost their market share, including market for Norton Commander and large part\nof the market for Norton Utilities. But we will talk about this later.\n\nVersion 3.0 was a really impressive improvement over the version 2 and it extended\nthe functionality of NC2 in many non-trivial ways. Due to the size of main module\n(ncmain.exe became 139K) swapping commander\nout of memory became standard mode of operation for users, instead of optional.\nHere is what we can learn from help about the team who created this amazing product:\n\n> The Norton Commander, Version 3.0\n> Copyright (C) 1986-1989 by Peter Norton Computing, Inc.\n> October 23, 1989, Created by John Socha\n> Help->About:\n> The Norton Commander, like any other great program, was\n> written by a team of dedicated individuals:\n> The main program and Commander Link -- designed and written\n> by John Socha\n> Commander Mail -- Peter Bradeen, Linda Dudinyak, and J.\n> Socha\n> The file viewers were written by several people, with J. Socha\n> on the side-lines:\n> Database viewers -- Keith Ermel\n> Spreadsheet viewers -- Linda Dudinyak\n> Wordprocessor viewers -- Linda Dudinyak\n> PCX viewer -- Brian Yoder\n> And finally, the on-line help was written by John Socha\n\nVersion 3.0 introduced many features which soon became a trademark of all OFM\nmanagers. Among them:\n\nThe total product distribution still fits on a single 1.44M floppy. The archive\nthat I have contains 40 files but some like **arcview.exe**were added later (see below). The list below represent a customized version\nthat was typically used instead of standard:\n\n> ```\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,464 123VIEW.EXE\n> 05/28/1992 04:22 PM 4,096 ARCVIEW.CFG\n> 11/21/1992 01:54 AM 30,048 ARCVIEW.EXE\n> 01/12/1995 02:55 PM 465 ARCVIEW.EXT\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 342 CHKMAIL.BAT\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 61,026 DBVIEW.EXE\n> 10/19/1993 09:25 PM 10,946 HAVIEW.EXE\n> 01/17/1992 12:01 PM 9,955 ICONVIEW.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 1,312 INREAD.ME\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,538 INSTALL.EXE\n> 12/11/1991 08:50 PM 8,094 LIBVIEW.EXE\n> 11/27/1991 12:32 PM 13 MCI.ATT\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 103,396 MCI.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 27,050 MCI.HLP\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 71,272 MCIDRIVR.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 3,104 NC.EXE\n> 03/20/1995 10:03 PM 430 NC.EXT\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 45,727 NC.HLP\n> 04/09/1995 08:31 PM 476 NC.INI\n> 10/03/2002 12:43 PM 82 NC.MNU\n> 10/17/1991 02:56 PM 139,280 NCMAIN.EXE\n> 04/06/1991 01:58 AM 37,216 NCOLOUR.EXE\n> 07/15/1988 02:00 PM 2,816 NCSMALL.EXE\n> 05/30/1991 04:49 PM 524 NCVIEW.EXE\n> 03/20/1995 09:56 PM 379 NCVIEW.EXT\n> 01/29/1990 01:12 PM 32,384 NE.COM\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 62,596 PARAVIEW.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 46,094 PCXVIEW.EXE\n> 04/27/1993 11:55 AM 51,226 PVIEW.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 67,966 RBVIEW.EXE\n> 11/11/1991 10:20 AM 974 READ.ME\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 63,492 REFVIEW.EXE\n> 10/16/1988 04:50 PM 79,079 RTDEMO2.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 4,480 SER-TEST.EXE\n> 10/23/1989 03:00 PM 9,564 SERIAL.TXT\n> 06/08/1991 02:09 PM 13,161 UBL_VIEW.EXE\n> 01/04/1991 02:07 PM 48,272 WPVIEW.EXE\n> 12/31/1991 06:38 PM 31,273 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n> 41 File(s) 1,366,006 bytes\n> ```\n\n```\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,464 123VIEW.EXE\n05/28/1992 04:22 PM 4,096 ARCVIEW.CFG\n11/21/1992 01:54 AM 30,048 ARCVIEW.EXE\n01/12/1995 02:55 PM 465 ARCVIEW.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 342 CHKMAIL.BAT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 61,026 DBVIEW.EXE\n10/19/1993 09:25 PM 10,946 HAVIEW.EXE\n01/17/1992 12:01 PM 9,955 ICONVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 1,312 INREAD.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,538 INSTALL.EXE\n12/11/1991 08:50 PM 8,094 LIBVIEW.EXE\n11/27/1991 12:32 PM 13 MCI.ATT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 103,396 MCI.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 27,050 MCI.HLP\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 71,272 MCIDRIVR.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 3,104 NC.EXE\n03/20/1995 10:03 PM 430 NC.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 45,727 NC.HLP\n04/09/1995 08:31 PM 476 NC.INI\n10/03/2002 12:43 PM 82 NC.MNU\n10/17/1991 02:56 PM 139,280 NCMAIN.EXE\n04/06/1991 01:58 AM 37,216 NCOLOUR.EXE\n07/15/1988 02:00 PM 2,816 NCSMALL.EXE\n05/30/1991 04:49 PM 524 NCVIEW.EXE\n03/20/1995 09:56 PM 379 NCVIEW.EXT\n01/29/1990 01:12 PM 32,384 NE.COM\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 62,596 PARAVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 46,094 PCXVIEW.EXE\n04/27/1993 11:55 AM 51,226 PVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 67,966 RBVIEW.EXE\n11/11/1991 10:20 AM 974 READ.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 63,492 REFVIEW.EXE\n10/16/1988 04:50 PM 79,079 RTDEMO2.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 4,480 SER-TEST.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 9,564 SERIAL.TXT\n06/08/1991 02:09 PM 13,161 UBL_VIEW.EXE\n01/04/1991 02:07 PM 48,272 WPVIEW.EXE\n12/31/1991 06:38 PM 31,273 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n41 File(s) 1,366,006 bytes\n```\n\nDue to larger size in Eastern Europe all executables of NC 3.0 were usually packed\nwith **diet.exe** or similar compression utility\nto save space (see below discussion of packing of executables in NC. 4.0). Here\nis the info about efficiency of different utilities for packing executables translated\nfrom the article\n[Norton Commander\n3.0 - Test of executable compressors](http://solidstate.karelia.ru/~yura/pyldin/yura/tst3_exe.htm)\n\n**nc.exe should not\nbe packed**\n\nThe idea of viewers have led to the first attempts to extend NC. Many programmers\nindependently started to add various viewers and even fix problems in existing viewers\nwith some binary patches. The most common trick was to replace the rarely used 123\nspreadsheets viewer (123VIEW.EXE) with something more useful, usually Zip archive\nviewer and change the extension it was associated with using a binary patch. That's\nhow the first archive viewers for OFMs were created. The last time I checked some\nof them were still available from file archives on the Internet:\n\n> |  |  |  |  |\n> | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n> | [ncpatch.zip](http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/freedownload/DOS/k/37/ncpatch.zip) | 1773 | 03-04-92 | -=FREE=- From Russia. Patch for Norton Commander v3.0. |\n> | [ncpatchz.zip](http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/freedownload/DOS/k/37/ncpatchz.zip) | 1622 | 06-21-92 | Patch Norton Commander 3.0 to view ZIP files. |\n\nDue to its capabilities and very high quality of programming version 3.0 was\na huge success and it dominated the field of DOS file managers probably until 1993.\nOnly after Volkov Commander was released (Volkov Commander was first published in\nthe [Softpanorama Bulletin](../../../Bulletin/index.shtml) in the December\n1992) its popularity started to fade, as VC was more powerful and at the same time\nmore compact program, the real masterpiece of assembler language programming. We\nwill discuss it [later in the chapter](volkov_commander.shtml).\n\nAmong the most successful Norton Commander early plug-ins I would like to mention\n[Hiew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiew) (short for Hacker's view) is\na popular console hex viewer, editor and disassember written by Eugene Suslikov.\nMost of early versions were published in and distributed by Softpanorama bulletin.\nThe program is particularly useful for binary patching. Later it became a useful\ntool for analyzing early computer viruses.\n\nAfter 1992 due to creation of more powerful clones and growth of popularity of\nother types of file managers (primarily Xtree Gold), the popularity of Norton Commander\nstated to fade.\n\nThe other reason was that after acquisition Symantec lost some developers (including\nJohn Socha) and failed to produce a new version within a reasonable interval (let's\nassume that the reasonable internal in this case was approximately two years ).\nThat means that\ncompetitors received unique capability to imitate and extend the Norton Commander\ncapabilities in their products.\n\nActually Symantec\nserved as the graveyard for many interesting DOS programs besides Norton Commander.\nWith the growing popularity of Windows it killed all major DOS projects without\nunderstanding their potential in a new environment or their potential value in Unix\nmarket. Among other interesting products killed were XTree, PC utilities and Norton\nUtilities (in the latter case only the name survived, but content did not: since\n2001 Norton Utilities for Windows were just a pale shadow of its former self)\n\nHere is one review from this now ancient\nperiod taken from\n[issue 1777 of\nNew Scientist magazine,](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13117777.200.html) 13 July 1991, page 52:\n\n> Most users of personal computers will have heard of Peter Norton. He was\n> the man who cooked up a set of programs, known as the Utilities. Anyone who\n> has inadvertently deleted a life's work of text or data from a hard disc will\n> think immediately of suicide: for them Norton's Utilities are a life-saver as\n> they can retrieve that precious lost data. They also make the horrid MS-DOS\n> operating system, which IBM to its everlasting shame chose for the personal\n> computer, go at least some of the way towards accommodating the real needs of\n> real people. ('Forgiveness is all', New Scientist, 14 October 1989).\n>\n> Norton's company in Santa Monica went on to produce related program packages\n> that humanise DOS even further. Norton Commander helps personal computer users\n> to bring order to the muddle of files that will always accumulate on a hard\n> disc. It lists and sorts the files that are there, giving a quick view of the\n> contents before deletion. Norton Backup helps users to make safety copies of\n> selected files, and checks that the copies are indeed safe.\n>\n> ... ... ...\n>\n> The latest version of Utilities has a 'trashcan' - a hidden store that holds\n> files intact for a week after they have been deleted. If in that time you change\n> your mind and want to save a file, it can easily be retrieved. After that Utilities\n> can only do its best to retrieve whatever is left of a deleted file after the\n> personal computer has written new data over the disc space previously allocated\n> to it.\n>\n> The Utilities even make formatting a disc safe. They impose a Safe Format\n> routine on the personal computer instead of the steamroller Format program that\n> comes with MS-DOS. To test it I saved a large file onto a floppy disc and reformatted\n> it using Safe Format. The file then disappeared. I used Norton's Unformat and\n> it reappeared. Utilities also has an improved facility to search large discs\n> for text lost in forgotten files.\n>\n> Norton programs are easy to install. The computer copies them from the master\n> floppy disc (Norton supplies both standard sizes), prompting the user from the\n> screen. But here I found some irritating faults. I do hope this does not mean\n> that the rapid growth of Peter Norton Computing Inc and its recent merger with\n> the software publisher Symantec has made Norton's ever-expanding team of programmers\n> careless.\n>\n> Backup is more awkward to install than the rest as its myriads of options\n> flash past. It performs a useful test backup routine, but perplexingly leaves\n> the disc drive light on while asking for discs to be swapped. Personal computer\n> users are always warned not to swap discs while the light is on.\n>\n> The new Commander seems not to recognise the existence of any previous version\n> already installed. This might cause problems. Confusingly it then throws up\n> a red error message about a menu file that is missing only because it has not\n> yet been created. Also it seems to insist on using a mouse if one is attached\n> to the personal computer for other purposes, even if the operator would rather\n> key in commands. The mouse puts a red cursor slap in the middle of the screen,\n> until the operator moves the mouse to move the cursor.\n>\n> The installations for all the programs automatically modify the personal\n> computer's set-up files (Autoexec. Bat and Config. Sys) but Backup erroneously\n> added its path instruction twice when installed over a previous version.\n>\n> ***The new Utilities uses an instruction called\n> Image to save a snapshot of the disc's contents in case it is accidentally reformatted.***The old version used a similar instruction called FR/Save. When\n> someone who is using the old version buys the new one and installs it, the new\n> Utilities does not delete the old instruction. As stray instructions will give\n> error messages on screen, this can be very disconcerting to all but the most\n> computer-literate user. Sorting out silly problems like this can be time-consuming.\n\nYou still can find \"how to\" articles about NC3 on the Web. Here is one such example:\n[Get the most\nout of your PC: Norton Commander](http://www.00100.dk/knowwareglobal/optimal/optimal_nc1.htm):\n\n> The section differs from the others in that I will walk you through the functions\n> I use the most. So it is a bit like a course in using NC.\n>\n> This section is here because many people have purchased and use this excellent\n> program, originally written by John Socha. The description mainly relates to\n> the English-language version 3.0.\n>\n> As time goes by, you cram a lot of files onto your hard disk, and these are\n> spread around in many different directories. I have always used Norton Commander\n> to manage files and directories. If you dont have this program, Im afraid\n> that you wont benefit much from this section. However, bits here and there\n> might interest you enough to make you consider buying the program. You may well\n> ask (with good reason) why I devote so much space to a program that doesnt\n> come with DOS.\n>\n> There are many similar programs, including Dosshell, PCTools and File Manager\n> in Windows. I personally find NC the easiest, fastest and smartest.\n>\n> NC was developed many years ago to ease the management of files and directories.\n> You *can* use a mouse in NC but I will only describe the use of the keyboard.\n>\n> Start NC by typing NC at the DOS prompt, and exit by pressing\n> F10. Tab toggles between\n> the two windows. Press Esc if you regret doing\n> something; if you open a window and select a function that you dont want, press\n> Esc. The screen is split into two windows, as if\n> you had two simultaneous DOS prompts, a *very intelligent* and handy function,\n> especially when copying and moving files.\n>\n> At the top of each window is the paths of the two directories shown by the\n> left and right windows. I call the horizontal marker the \"bar.\" The bar marks\n> a drive, a directory or a file. If the current directory is empty, the bar will\n> be at the top of the screen.\n>\n> Both windows show files and directories in the manner you stipulate via the\n> pull-down menus. Try pressing F9 and\n> Enter or the down arrow.\n>\n> This activates the pull-down menus. You can move around in a window by using\n> the up and down keyboard arrows, and you move to a new window using the right\n> or left keyboard arrows. Press Esc twice to return.\n>\n> The bottom of the screen shows the actions of the different function keys.\n> Try holding down Alt and you will see what\n> Alt + a function key will do.\n>\n> ###### Configuration\n>\n> Lets start by configuring your screen and program to resemble mine while\n> you read this. You can always change it later. In the *options* menu, select\n> *configuration*. In each dialogue box, you select with the space bar to\n> activate a point and move with the arrow keys, Tab\n> or Enter. Here are my recommendations.\n>\n> *Screen blank delay*means that the screen goes (almost) blank after a\n> certain period of time if you havent touched the keyboard. This protects your\n> screen. Mine is set at three minutes, but you make your own choice.\n>\n> *Show hidden files*: blank (until you are familiar with NC, I recommend\n> you use a setup that doesnt show hidden files). *Ins Moves down* means\n> that pressing the Insert key moves the bar one step down. *Auto change directory*means that if you have a directory tree in the left window and the corresponding\n> files of a marked directory in the right window, the files of the new directory\n> will be shown each time you change directory in the left window. Under other\n> options, select: *Menu bar always visible* blank. Menu bar always visible\n> means that the top bar for pull-down menus is always visible. *Auto save setup*\n> x, means this configuration is saved when you exit NC. End with\n> OK just keep pressing Enter\n> until you reach OK.\n>\n> Still under Options (F9\n> and either arrow-down or\n> Enter). The selections toggle between on and off each time theyre chosen.\n> You should have the following active, i.e. showing a small check mark next to\n> them, which you do by pressing Enter or the emphasized\n> letter. Unfortunately, you can only change one thing at a time.\n>\n> *Path prompt* The DOS directory path: The DOS prompt at the bottom of\n> the screen shows the current directory.\n> *Key bar* The function keys are shown at the very bottom of the screen.\n>\n> F9, and Enter.\n> The menu for the left and right window is split into three sections and within\n> each frame you can choose from one of the following:\n>\n> **Top Section** Shows the information you choose to see in the window\n> *Brief*: file names only.\n> *Full*: file names, sizes, dates and times.\n> *Info:* information on the current disk, space used and available.\n> *Tree* directory diagram: directory tree in this window and files in\n> the other.\n> **Middle Section** sort order for files\n>\n> The different options are self-explanatory. Normally, I have *Name*\n> activated but if, for example, you change something in a program thats made\n> up of several files and you want to see in which file the program saves certain\n> things, the most convenient way is to sort by *Time* and the changed file\n> will appear at the top of the list. If you need to view many files with the\n> same extension, then select *Extension*.\n>\n> **Bottom Section** I never use this.\n>\n> You can select either by moving with the arrow keys and then pressing\n> Enter or by typing the capitalized letter. Try\n> selecting *Brief*; the window shows the current directory with files, though\n> with names only. Do the same with the other window, by pressing\n> Tab, F9 and selecting\n> Brief. If you press F9 and regret it, press\n> Esc. Move the bar up and down with the arrow keys.\n> Notice that at the bottom of the small frame you get full information about\n> the file or directory that the bar is resting upon.. Directories are written\n> in capital letters and files are written with lowercase letters. Now select\n> *Full* for both windows (F9,\n> Enter, Full,), which\n> shows the files with name, size, date and time. This is my preference; you may\n> have a different opinion.\n\n## The first flip-flop: NC 4.0 (1992)\n\nAcquisition by Symantec created some problems in development. Symantec brass\nmade a bet on commercial success of Microsoft Windows and decided that DOS-style\nproducts has no future. People were reassigned accordingly. While part about Microsoft Windows success was right, part\nabout loss of value of DOS products was wrong and naive. In any case, the key PNC\nresources had been diverted.  this behaviour \"mad rush for cash cows\") was actually pretty\ntypical for software companies and left  many promising products in category which is called\n\"abandonware\".\n\nAdditional programmers for development for Windows\nplatform were hired to develop a File Manager and Program Manager released as Norton\nDesktop for Windows.\n\nAll this resulted in a pause in releases of Norton Commander and for three years\ncompetitors managed to eat a significant part of  NC market share.\n\nVersion 4.0 of NC was released only in 1992 (with three years interval from NC3.0).\nHere is the press release\n\n```\n    Norton Commander 4.0 is the Fastest and Easiest Way to\n    Manage, View, Compress and Uncompress Files\n```\n\n```\n    Key Features Overview:\n    -- File compression for the most popular formats\n    -- Over 50 viewers for application, graphics and compressed files\n    -- High-speed file and directory transfer from laptop to desktop\n       and vice versa\n    -- Send faxes, telexes and paper mail with Commander Mail\n    -- All file, copy, move and delete dialog boxes include\n       subdirectories\n    -- Support for 300 percent larger directories\n    -- Available now -- $99 SRP\n```\n\n> CUPERTINO, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced Norton Commander 4.0, the world's best- selling DOS shell that provides the fastest and easiest way to manage, view, compress and uncompress files. Norton Commander 4.0 brings significantly greater speed and convenience to file management, file viewing, application launching, electronic mail and PC-to-PC file transfer. No other comprehensive DOS file management software is as fast, as easy-to-use and as small in memory and disk space requirements as Norton Commander 4.0.\n> Norton Commander increases a user's productivity by providing immediate access to and a complete view of directories and their contents. One keystroke or mouse click can launch applications, view, copy, move and delete files and directories.\n>\n> Commander lets the user view over 50 different kinds of files, including DOS and Windows application files, graphic files and compressed files. Commander Link, with new file-only transfer capability, transfers files between two PCs via both serial and parallel connector cables.\n> \"The fourth generation Commander is not only fast and lean, making it ideal for portables, but it's also powerful, versatile and feature- rich,\" said Grant Johnson, Symantec's business unit director for the Peter Norton Group. \"It contains improvements with recommendations and suggestions from users all over the world. The Norton Commander 4.0 transforms the DOS environment into one that is easily managed by the everyday user, yet robust enough for the advanced user.\"\n>\n> **New Features**\n>\n> - **File Compression in the World's Most Popular Formats.** Norton Commander lets the user copy, move and delete to and from compressed files. Commander has built in support for PKZIP 2.04x, and seamless external support for ARJ, ARC, PAK, LHARC and ZOO. With simple modifications, additional external compression programs can also be supported.\n> - **Over 30 New File Viewers Added.** Norton Commander 4.0 users can view more than 50 files formats including Q&A, Paradox 3.5, Lotus 1-2-3.x, Excel 3.x, MS Word for Windows 1.x and 2.x and more. In addition to PCX, several new graphical viewers including GIF, BMP, TIFF and ICO have been added.\n> - **Enhanced Commander Link.** The addition of parallel link support in Commander Link lets users apply the high-speed parallel port to transfer files and directories from their laptop to their desktop PC and vice versa. \"New File\" transfer capability saves times by only transferring new files, A new cloning feature allows Commander to easily duplicate itself over a serial connection.\n> - **Commander Mail Enhancements.** Commander Mail lets MCI Mail users send faxes, telexes and paper mail to recipients who do not need to be MCI Mail subscribers. Commander Mail automatically files e-mail messages and store frequently used fax numbers and e-mail ID numbers in an address book.\n> - **Quick View.** Quick View lets users browse through a list of files in one panel while displaying the contents of any highlighted file in the other panel. Without first loading the parent applications, the new Quick View feature allows the user to view spreadsheet, database, graphics, word processing or compressed files in one keystroke or mouse click. When a directory is highlighted, Quick View will show the total number of the files and subdirectories of that directory and the amount of space used.\n>   Quick View is available from both the Left and Right menus. The Zoom feature lets the user zoom a half-screen file view to full screen and back again with a single keystroke.\n>\n> **Additional Features**\n>\n> Directories can now be three times larger than before, containing more than 1,600 files per directory. For greater efficiency and convenience, all file copy, move and delete dialog boxes have an \"include subdirectories\" check box. This allows the user to include both directories and subdirectories with all file operations.\n>\n> A more proficient Editor supports block operations and includes printing capability, letting the user create and edit existing documents without leaving Commander. An enhanced Find/File capability lets the user search for text contained in a file. In can also copy, move and delete found files.\n>\n> In addition to allowing access to the DOS prompt at any time, Commander also provides a DOS history, recalling and displaying the last 15 DOS commands in a pop-up window for quick selection and re-running. Users can easily edit the command line and copy file names to it.\n>\n> The Norton Commander 4.0 is network compatible, allowing users to access and manage data over any PC compatible network. Commander also provides system information, making a hardware and memory information summary available from a menu option.\n>\n> **Pricing and Availability**\n>\n> Norton Commander 4.0 is available at a suggested retail price of $99. Upgrades to registered users of Norton Commander are available for $39, plus shipping and handling, and include a free copy of Norton Speedcache+, the fastest hard disk and CD-ROM cache for DOS and Windows.\n>\n> Norton Commander 4.0 requires DOS 3.1 or higher. It runs on IBM PC XT, AT, PS/2 and compatibles, requires 512K RAM, a serial or parallel cable for Commander Link, and an MCI Account for Commander Mail.\n>\n> Symantec Corporation develops, markets and supports a complete line of applications and system software products for IBM personal computers and compatibles, and Apple Macintosh computers. Founded in 1982, the company has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Information on the company and its products can be obtained by calling 800-441-7234 toll free, or 408-252-3570.\n>\n> -0- 6/21/93\n>\n> /NOTE TO EDITORS: Brand and product references herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders./\n>\n> /CONTACT: Ana Shannon, 310-449-4140, or Christiane Petite, 310-449-4141, both of Symantec Corporation; Rebecca Fuller of Wilson McHenry Company, 415-592-7600, for Symantec/\n> (SYMC)\n\nWhile it definitely made some progress, it was far less impressive as it was more\nresource intensive (uncompressed ncmain.exe for NC4.0 was over 200K). On plain vanilla DOS\nthis was larger then many DOS PCs can afford at the time (in other words it become bloatware). And\nin Europe, the key market for the product, it has difficulties in\ncompeting with free clones, such as Volkov Commander and DN both of which were released earlier. In\na way, it\nplayed catch-up...\n\nUnlike version 3.0 which was remarkably stable, the initial version was also\nsomewhat buggy.  Another problem was that on architectural level Symantec honchos  failed\nto understanding that the program can enrich not only primitive DOS shell\nand make command line operations (which are still were main way of Windows usage\ndue to huge inertia from DOS) much more palatable, but can be transformed in to GUI version of the program\nwhich can inherit associated market share of loyal users.\n\nI suspect that Symantec was almost always \"make money fast\" type of company, unable to\nthink strategically and due to this destroying most on their acquisitions. \nBut that's just a speculation. The hard fact was that NC 4.0 was squeezed by both free and\ncommercial competitors. The latter included XtreeGold and  PC Tools 6.0 which during those three year closed the\ngap in capabilities to zero and it was no longer flagship product it used to be.\nXTree Gold (released in 1989) developed a very strong following and was\ninnovative\nis several respects, first of all with its approach of \"history of everything\".\nBoth companies were bought and subsequently destroyed by Symantec: in 1993, the XTree\nCompany was sold to Central Point Software, produced of PC Utilities, which was in\nturn acquired by Symantec in 1994. In 1995 production of XTree products was halted.\n\nDN and Volkov Commander greatly undermined attractiveness of NC4.0 in Europe and xUSSR\nregion (the USSR was dissolved in 1991). You simply can justify $99 price even\non the strength of brand name, when viable competitors are available for one\nthird/one forth of this sum.\n\nYou can find multiple screenshots of NC4.0 at\n[Dinosaur Sightings DOS File Managers](https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?tag=siu-container;thumbnail-view-selector) by Greg Shultz (slides\n[23](https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?seq=23&tag=siu-container;thumbnail-view-selector) -[29](https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?seq=29&tag=content;siu-container#photopaging)).\nSome comments in the discussion are really interesting:\n\n> **tomk3212**\n>\n> > *Norton Commander.* 15th Mar\n> >\n> > There is a story from the mid-80's (probably apocryphal) that just about\n> > every PC that was smuggled into the old Soviet Union had the Norton Commander\n> > installed on it as the file manager for DOS (export restrictions at that\n> > time forbade directly selling PCs to the Iron Curtain countries). The folks\n> > using these smuggled PCs thought that NC was part of the DOS operating system!\n> > Norton's support line in Europe had to field tons of calls from Eastern\n> > Bloc countries and explain endlessly that this was a pirated version of\n> > their software & if they wanted support thay had to pony up $$ to pay for\n> > it. Just goes to show just how darn popular NC was at that time. I used\n> > it for years....legally however...lol **--[ This\n> > story about tons of support calls from Eastern Block countries is definitely\n> > wrong; such calls were prohibitively expensive at the time, something like\n> > $1 per minute; also people were not stupid to call the vendor about pirated\n> > product *-- NNB*]**\n>\n> **Cmd\\_Line\\_Dino**\n>\n> > *I too loved Norton Commander. Now I use its clone...* 15th Mar\n> >\n> > File Commander by Brian Havard is a 32-bit clone of Norton Commander\n> > <http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html>\n> >\n> > It is everything that NC was and so much more. I have used it since Windows\n> > NT and now use it on Win 7 64-bit.\n> >\n> > It's also available for several Unix-like OS-es.\n>\n> **liljim**\n>\n> > *File managers,* 15th Mar\n> >\n> > I developed some expertise in using NCC, and the Microsoft shells. But\n> > I considered myself an expert at using XTree and XTreeGold.\n> > ***I liked them so much, I bought a dozen copies\n> > on several occasions when I saw a bargain bin***. The XTree\n> > family is a major reason I never ran Windows 3.10 or earlier versions. I\n> > supported quite a few people who ran Win 3.11, but that was not my preference\n> > either. **Win95 was the first serious challenge to\n> > my use of XTree. I still wonder if I made the right choice back then too!**\n> >\n> > Good Memories, Thanks for the reminder.\n>\n> **dpresley\\_50201**\n>\n> > *PC Tools' PC Shell*, 16th Mar\n> >\n> > I used PC Tools 6.0 for almost everything related to file and disk management\n> > including PC Shell. I've used NC, but PC Shell, IIRC, also had a dual pane\n> > display, although one had to enable it in the settings, and it did everything\n> > I required of a file manager.\n>\n> **specstuffe**\n>\n> > *Dos file managers*, 16th Mar\n> >\n> > DOS is not dead! The critiqued managers were good but, there are some\n> > newer managers to look at. ***Necromancer's DOS\n> > navigator is modern up to date and blows away all the others. Another really\n> > good one is Graphic Vision File Manager. Almost as good as the NDN.***\n> >\n> > DOS Navigator v640 Open Source Project is another good one. All these\n> > are available for download. KEEP DOS ALIVE!\n>\n> **valentin\\_ivan**\n>\n> > DOS Navigator, 28th Mar\n> >\n> > Yeap!\n> >\n> > Much better than the well-known Norton Commander!\n>\n> **NickNielsenUpdated**\n>\n> > *Norton Commander* - 16th Mar\n> >\n> > was the shizznitt!\n> >\n> > PCShell, the PCTools file manager was a close second.\n>\n> **Cmd\\_Line\\_Dino**\n>\n> > *If you loved Norton Commander then get everything it was and more\n> > today,* 17th Mar\n> >\n> > File Commander by Brian Havard is a clone of Norton Commander. All the\n> > features of Norton Commander and so much more. Started over 15 years ago\n> > and still being enhanced. The author responds to bug reports and feature\n> > requests. I consider it one of my two indispensable apps.\n> >\n> > **Full disclosure**: I am in no way connected to File Commander or\n> > the developer. I am just a very happy user (for over 15 years).\n> >\n> > p.s. Give it a try and leave the primitive world of Windows Explorer\n>\n> **rgeiken**\n>\n> > *DOS File Managers*, 19th Mar\n> >\n> > One of my favorite file managers was XTree Gold. I***used that frequently over the years. I also used the Microsoft file managers,\n> > but most of the time it was XTree Gold. For me personally, that was really\n> > the Gold Standard when I was using DOS up through Windows 3.1***\n>\n> **firstaborean,**\n>\n> > *Norton Commander***,** 19th Mar\n> >\n> > I used Norton Commander from my MS-DOS 3.21 days onward, even with Windows\n> > 95 and 98. Under Windows 98SE, I once used the NC file viewer and Randy's\n> > Icon Editor to change a Windows 3-style icon to one usable under Windows\n> > XP, which then was Microsoft's latest and greatest OS. NC opened the icon\n> > file, and I saved the screen shot. Then I opened the screen shot under the\n> > Icon Editor and re-saved it as an icon file. Over the years, I used NC as\n> > an analytic and diagnostic tool, as well as a file manager. The only thing\n> > usable under Windows, these days, that's at all comparable is Power Desk.\n>\n> **jtmccall**\n>\n> > *NC Ruled,* 19th Mar\n> >\n> > Loved my Norton Commander so much I continued to use it in a dos window\n> > under Win '95. I have never really gotten to like the Windows Explorer.\n> > Norton's two-pane format and all of the intuitive extras were simply well\n> > designed and provided all the functionality I needed. Add Norton Utilities\n> > to the mix and you were an IT god back in the day.\n>\n> **info**\n>\n> > *DOS file manager*, 19th Mar\n> >\n> > My favourite was the Norton Commander, which I was using until the company\n> > gave it up when Windows 98 was dominating the consumer PC OS market. I am\n> > still using the follow-up software, nowadays known as Total Commander, mainly\n> > because of the two windows making it very simple to copy, move, look at\n> > and administer otherwise files as you like it. It is far more comfortable\n> > than the Windows Explorer, which has not really changed since it was launched.\n\n> *Norton Commander.* 15th Mar\n>\n> There is a story from the mid-80's (probably apocryphal) that just about\n> every PC that was smuggled into the old Soviet Union had the Norton Commander\n> installed on it as the file manager for DOS (export restrictions at that\n> time forbade directly selling PCs to the Iron Curtain countries). The folks\n> using these smuggled PCs thought that NC was part of the DOS operating system!\n> Norton's support line in Europe had to field tons of calls from Eastern\n> Bloc countries and explain endlessly that this was a pirated version of\n> their software & if they wanted support thay had to pony up $$ to pay for\n> it. Just goes to show just how darn popular NC was at that time. I used\n> it for years....legally however...lol **--[ This\n> story about tons of support calls from Eastern Block countries is definitely\n> wrong; such calls were prohibitively expensive at the time, something like\n> $1 per minute; also people were not stupid to call the vendor about pirated\n> product *-- NNB*]**\n\n> *I too loved Norton Commander. Now I use its clone...* 15th Mar\n>\n> File Commander by Brian Havard is a 32-bit clone of Norton Commander\n> <http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html>\n>\n> It is everything that NC was and so much more. I have used it since Windows\n> NT and now use it on Win 7 64-bit.\n>\n> It's also available for several Unix-like OS-es.\n\n> *File managers,* 15th Mar\n>\n> I developed some expertise in using NCC, and the Microsoft shells. But\n> I considered myself an expert at using XTree and XTreeGold.\n> ***I liked them so much, I bought a dozen copies\n> on several occasions when I saw a bargain bin***. The XTree\n> family is a major reason I never ran Windows 3.10 or earlier versions. I\n> supported quite a few people who ran Win 3.11, but that was not my preference\n> either. **Win95 was the first serious challenge to\n> my use of XTree. I still wonder if I made the right choice back then too!**\n>\n> Good Memories, Thanks for the reminder.\n\n> *PC Tools' PC Shell*, 16th Mar\n>\n> I used PC Tools 6.0 for almost everything related to file and disk management\n> including PC Shell. I've used NC, but PC Shell, IIRC, also had a dual pane\n> display, although one had to enable it in the settings, and it did everything\n> I required of a file manager.\n\n> *Dos file managers*, 16th Mar\n>\n> DOS is not dead! The critiqued managers were good but, there are some\n> newer managers to look at. ***Necromancer's DOS\n> navigator is modern up to date and blows away all the others. Another really\n> good one is Graphic Vision File Manager. Almost as good as the NDN.***\n>\n> DOS Navigator v640 Open Source Project is another good one. All these\n> are available for download. KEEP DOS ALIVE!\n\n> DOS Navigator, 28th Mar\n>\n> Yeap!\n>\n> Much better than the well-known Norton Commander!\n\n> *Norton Commander* - 16th Mar\n>\n> was the shizznitt!\n>\n> PCShell, the PCTools file manager was a close second.\n\n> *If you loved Norton Commander then get everything it was and more\n> today,* 17th Mar\n>\n> File Commander by Brian Havard is a clone of Norton Commander. All the\n> features of Norton Commander and so much more. Started over 15 years ago\n> and still being enhanced. The author responds to bug reports and feature\n> requests. I consider it one of my two indispensable apps.\n>\n> **Full disclosure**: I am in no way connected to File Commander or\n> the developer. I am just a very happy user (for over 15 years).\n>\n> p.s. Give it a try and leave the primitive world of Windows Explorer\n\n> *DOS File Managers*, 19th Mar\n>\n> One of my favorite file managers was XTree Gold. I***used that frequently over the years. I also used the Microsoft file managers,\n> but most of the time it was XTree Gold. For me personally, that was really\n> the Gold Standard when I was using DOS up through Windows 3.1***\n\n> *Norton Commander***,** 19th Mar\n>\n> I used Norton Commander from my MS-DOS 3.21 days onward, even with Windows\n> 95 and 98. Under Windows 98SE, I once used the NC file viewer and Randy's\n> Icon Editor to change a Windows 3-style icon to one usable under Windows\n> XP, which then was Microsoft's latest and greatest OS. NC opened the icon\n> file, and I saved the screen shot. Then I opened the screen shot under the\n> Icon Editor and re-saved it as an icon file. Over the years, I used NC as\n> an analytic and diagnostic tool, as well as a file manager. The only thing\n> usable under Windows, these days, that's at all comparable is Power Desk.\n\n> *NC Ruled,* 19th Mar\n>\n> Loved my Norton Commander so much I continued to use it in a dos window\n> under Win '95. I have never really gotten to like the Windows Explorer.\n> Norton's two-pane format and all of the intuitive extras were simply well\n> designed and provided all the functionality I needed. Add Norton Utilities\n> to the mix and you were an IT god back in the day.\n\n> *DOS file manager*, 19th Mar\n>\n> My favourite was the Norton Commander, which I was using until the company\n> gave it up when Windows 98 was dominating the consumer PC OS market. I am\n> still using the follow-up software, nowadays known as Total Commander, mainly\n> because of the two windows making it very simple to copy, move, look at\n> and administer otherwise files as you like it. It is far more comfortable\n> than the Windows Explorer, which has not really changed since it was launched.\n\nAlso the absence of the original architect were quite evident. On the\nother side Windows 3.1 already became an instant success and most commercial application\ndevelopment moved to a new platform. GUI based file manager was included with Windows\n3.1 and was good enough for many users. Paradoxically while NC 4.0 was really too heavy-weight for\n\"native\" DOS it was  OK for emulators and thus was more attractive in Windows 3.1 then in DOS.\n\nAll of those factors made the product much less commercially successful. Also it was time to move to 32-bit API,\nbut the developers mentality was still stuck in DOS world.\n\nI personally consider NC 4.0 to be a mediocre product which failed to move the\nfranchise to a hew, unachievable to competitors, height like was the case with versions\n2 and 3. The phase \"too little too late\" looks perfectly applicable. I switched\nfrom NC 4.0 to Volkov Commander so NC 3.0 was the last product in Norton line about\nwhich I have hands-on experience.\n\nOne interesting innovation (which actually appeared in clones first)  was that NC 4.0 integrated zip-archive viewer into the distribution and treated zip archives\nas folders, but functionality was limited to viewing of the content of the archive\n-- it did not treated archive like folders with all operations available.\n\nThe distribution contained 62 files and occupied 2,237,459 bytes. Here is the\ncontent of the distribution:\n\n```\n05/10/1993  10:46 AM       64,328 123VIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 4372ANSI.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 8502ANSI.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 ANSI2437.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 ANSI2850.SET\n03/09/1993  09:56 AM        1,487 ARCVIEW.CFG\n05/07/1993  11:07 AM       87,648 ARCVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       54,805 BITMAP.EXE\n04/23/1992  10:51 AM       17,939 CHIVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       38,501 CLP2DIB.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        8,073 CMPSRV.SCX\n07/02/1993  03:44 PM           71 COMPUSER.SYS\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          790 DATEX.P\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       59,348 DBVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       49,957 DRAW2WMF.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       64,085 DRW2WMF.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        8,036 GENIE.SCX\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       37,925 ICO2DIB.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       52,750 INSTALL.EXE\n04/13/1993  04:03 PM           83 LGAVIEW.CFG\n05/13/2001  01:13 AM       38,992 LGAVIEW.EXE\n11/24/2007  08:58 AM            0 manifest\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       27,269 MSP2DIB.EXE\n07/20/1993  04:27 PM        2,225 NC.CFG\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        3,358 NC.EXE\n12/24/1993  06:55 AM          146 NC.EXT\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       55,245 NC.HLP\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          766 NC.ICO\n11/23/2007  11:07 PM          774 NC.INI\n12/07/1994  11:08 AM          866 NC.MNU\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       63,264 NCEDIT.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM      212,777 NCMAIN.EXE\n02/19/1996  07:07 AM            5 NCTMP.TMP\n12/22/1992  09:59 AM          340 NCVIEW.CFG\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       93,696 NCZIP.EXE\n01/14/1993  04:43 PM       20,737 NE.COM\n11/28/1990  01:00 PM       65,814 NE.EXE\n06/22/1993  04:13 PM          425 NE.INI\n05/27/1993  07:00 AM      200,451 NLIB100.RTL\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       39,514 PACKER.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        4,408 PACKER.SET\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       60,898 PARAVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       38,085 PCT2DIB.EXE\n05/07/1991  08:42 PM       25,285 PCXVIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       59,230 Q&AVIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  05:12 PM       65,022 RBVIEW.EXE\n11/28/1990  01:00 PM        4,597 READ.NE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        6,919 README.TXT\n05/10/1993  05:12 PM       61,576 REFVIEW.EXE\n06/06/1991  06:00 AM       64,889 SFORMAT.EXE\n02/27/1994  12:50 PM        1,220 STATUS.ME\n07/02/1993  04:01 PM          128 TERM90.DIR\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM      325,623 TERM90.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       13,343 TERM90.HLP\n03/21/1994  12:53 PM        1,140 TERM90.INI\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       11,187 TERM90.RES\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        3,735 TESTMDM.SCX\n01/10/1992  11:23 AM       30,413 TXTVIEW.EXE\n02/27/1994  12:50 PM           50 VIEWER.BAT\n05/28/1992  08:10 PM          324 WPVIEW.CFG\n05/07/1993  11:07 AM       55,824 WPVIEW.EXE\n01/10/1992  11:23 AM       30,053 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n62 File(s) 2,237,459 bytes\n```\n\nIt did not contain any innovative features which would position it above the\nclones that were released the same year.\n\nI would like to stress it again  that  DOS NC4 failed to beat Volkov Commander\nin this new \"orthodox file manager\" development game. Volkov Commander was smaller,\nfaster and, paradoxically, richer in features. It was written in assembler (actually\nit was a COM program). In the heavy-weight category NC 4.0 cannot compete with DN\n-- another very innovative and influential orthodox file manager. DN quickly found\npretty wide user community in Eastern Europe. DN was larger then NC 4.0 and was\nwritten in a Turbo Vision which give it a rich Windows-style look and feel despite\nbeing a command line program: windows were very flexible and resizable in all dimensions.\nIt also supported multiple panels. We will discuss both later in the book.\n\nDue to large size components of NC 4.0 were usually packed (some of them were\npacked by Symantec). Here are comparative result (translated from Russian) from\nthe page [Norton\nCommander 4.0 и 5.0 - Test of packers and reference information:](http://solidstate.karelia.ru/~yura/pyldin/yura/tst_exep.htm)\n\n> Part I\n>\n> |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |\n> | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n> | **Name** | **Orig size** | **DIET** | **PKLITE** | **LZEXE** | **WWPACK** | **UP****X 2.01 --brute --8086** |\n> | **INSTALL** | **52270** | **32374** | **32254** | **33132** | **31032** | **30379** |\n> | **nc** | **2910** | **nc.exe should not be packed** | | | | |\n> | **ncedit** | **63152** | **39713** | **39720** | **40512** | **37694** | **36267** |\n> | **ncmain** | **212393** | **115900** | **115214** | **116996** | **106345** | **100047** |\n> | **nczip** | **93536** | **48533** | **48051** | **49588** | **45248** | **43128** |\n> | **packer** | **39514** | **22247** | **22756** | **22613** | **21048** | **20041** |\n>\n> ***Note: TERM90.EXE is unusable in packed format***\n>\n> ***Part II*****(8 files)**\n>\n> |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |\n> | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n> | **Name** | **Orig size** | **DIET** | **PKLITE** | **LZEXE** | **WWPACK** | **UP****X 2.01 --brute --8086** |\n> | **123view** | **63912** | **39670** | **39402** | **40571** | **37620** | **36460** |\n> | **arcview** | **87232** | **33328** | **33280** | **34091** | **31479** | **30566** |\n> | **dbview** | **58932** | **37156** | **36971** | **38093** | **35350** | **34379** |\n> | **paraview** | **60482** | **38418** | **38214** | **39357** | **36539** | **35634** |\n> | **q&aview** | **58814** | **37235** | **37042** | **38173** | **35417** | **34477** |\n> | **rbview** | **64606** | **40686** | **40374** | **41597** | **38556** | **37489** |\n> | **refview** | **61160** | **38745** | **38516** | **39693** | **36833** | **35890** |\n> | **wpview** | **55424** | **35520** | **35393** | **36321** | **33968** | **32992** |\n\n## The last attempt to revive the brand: NC 5.0 (1993)\n\nNC 5.0 was the last \"official\" version of Norton Commander. It was released in\n1993 just one year after NC 4.0. NC 5.0 was a much better product then version 4.0\nand it did produced really useful, innovative enhancements that defined the OFM\nstandard for years to come.\n\nBut at this time DOS was in severe decline and interest generated\nby new DOS programs started to fade. Windows 3.1 was the name of the game and understanding\nthat the best DOS programs can benefit from conversion into 32-bit interface will\ncome much later with Far and Total commander. There was no such understanding among\nSymantec brass and that probably was the root problem. But this \"uncreative destruction\" was typical\nfor neoliberal companies, including most  software startups.\n\nIf you never tried this  version to  get some impression of how it looked and behaved\ncan be done by watching  a couple\nof videos on YouTube:\n\nIn a way version 5.5 represented the last attempt by Symantec to recapture the\nmarket share from NC clones. Although it was a very impressive implementation, it\nfailed to revive commercial success of early versions as DOS itself was already\nin decline in 1993 and new DOS programs was less commercially successful then Windows\n3.1 based programs. The time for the commercial success of DOS programs has gone.\nbut that does not mean that the product itself was unviable. It just could produce less money for\nmany years to come, which some maintenance, conversion to 32 bit API and  minimal enhancement.\nThe core functionality was already \"in\" and major enhancement might spoil the broth.\n\nHere is the contents of the distribution:\n\n```\n Name                    Last modified       Size\n---------------------------------------------------\n Parent Directory        25-Jul-2007 13:24      -\n 123VIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   125k\n 4372ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8502ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8632ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8652ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8662ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2437.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2850.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2863.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2865.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2866.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ARC.EXE                 13-Mar-1989 17:30    64k\n ARCVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    80k\n ARJ.EXE                 28-Aug-1992 12:26   106k\n AVIEW.CTL               22-Dec-1993 21:55     1k\n AVIEW.DOC               31-Jan-1993 17:00     8k\n AVIEW.EXE               31-Jan-1993 17:00    55k\n BITMAP.EXE              21-Mar-1994 08:43    54k\n BUG.NSS                 07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n BUNGEE.NSS              07-Feb-1995 04:00    41k\n CHKLIST.MS              22-Nov-1994 20:40     1k\n CLP2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    38k\n CMPSRV.SCX              07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n COMPRESS.HLP            03-May-1990 00:03     6k\n CONNECT.INF             02-May-1995 11:01     1k\n DATEX.P                 07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n DBVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    99k\n DIR2DIR.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    12k\n DRAW2WMF.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00    49k\n DRW2WMF.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    63k\n EVILEYE.NSS             07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n FACES.NSS               07-Feb-1995 04:00    13k\n FIE_ID.DIZ              11-Apr-1995 00:30     1k\n FISH.NSS                07-Feb-1995 04:00    53k\n FLIP.NSS                07-Feb-1995 04:00    51k\n GENIE.SCX               07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n ICO2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n INSTALL.EXE             01-Jan-1994 19:00    51k\n LHA.EXE                 20-Jul-1991 15:13    33k\n LIST.COM                13-Aug-1991 13:06    24k\n LOG.LOG                 11-Apr-1996 15:17     0k\n MCIDRIVR.EXE            26-Jan-1990 18:00    70k\n MOUSE.NSS               07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n MSP2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    27k\n NC.CFG                  08-Apr-1995 12:17     1k\n NC.EXE                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NC.EXT                  27-Jan-1996 18:13     1k\n NC.FIL                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NC.HLP                  07-Feb-1995 04:00    67k\n NC.ICO                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC.MNU                  08-Apr-1995 11:49     0k\n NC.MSG                  07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n NC.PIF                  07-Nov-2000 09:07     1k\n NCCLEAN.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   115k\n NCCLEAN.INI             29-Jul-1999 10:28     3k\n NCDD.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   264k\n NCDD.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NCEDIT.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   189k\n NCEDIT.EXT              21-Sep-1995 22:31     1k\n NCEDIT.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     2k\n NCFF.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   103k\n NCFF.HLP                07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NCFF.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NCLABEL.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   164k\n NCMAIN.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   228k\n NCNET.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   181k\n NCNET.INI               29-Apr-1999 13:25     1k\n NCNET.MSG               07-Feb-1995 04:00     5k\n NCPSCRIP.HDR            07-Feb-1995 04:00    13k\n NCSF.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   329k\n NCSF.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n NCSI.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   331k\n NCSI.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NCVIEW.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n NCZIP.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   136k\n NCZIP.MSG               07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC_EXIT.COM             07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC_EXIT.DOC             07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NMAIL.EXE               11-Jun-1993 05:00   221k\n NMAIL.HLP               11-Jun-1993 05:00   129k\n NMAIL.ICO               11-Jun-1993 05:00     1k\n NML_MCI.DRV             11-Jun-1993 05:00    47k\n NML_NMD.OVL             11-Jun-1993 05:00    94k\n NORTON.INI              22-Jul-1997 14:36     2k\n PACKER.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   103k\n PACKER.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n PACKER.SET              07-Feb-1995 04:00     5k\n PAK.EXE                 08-Oct-1990 08:51   104k\n PAKINST.EXE             08-Oct-1990 08:51    17k\n PARAVIEW.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00   113k\n PCT2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n PKUNZIP.EXE             01-Feb-1993 17:04    29k\n PKZIP.EXE               01-Feb-1993 17:04    41k\n PLAYWAVE.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00    25k\n Q&AVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    97k\n RBVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   119k\n README.TXT              07-Feb-1995 04:00    17k\n REFVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   115k\n SAVER.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   154k\n TERM95.DIR              02-May-1995 10:59     1k\n TERM95.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   389k\n TERM95.GTT              07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n TERM95.HLP              07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n TERM95.INI              10-May-1996 01:13     1k\n TERM95.RES              07-Feb-1995 04:00    19k\n TESTMDM.SCX             07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n TIF2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    46k\n TORNADO.NSS             07-Feb-1995 04:00     9k\n VECTOR.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    62k\n VIEWER.BAT              27-Feb-1995 17:28     1k\n WHATS.NEW               07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n WPB2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n WPV2WMF.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    60k\n WPVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    94k\n WS_FTP.LOG              06-Jun-2000 13:38    10k\n ZOO.EXE                 09-Jul-1991 08:53    66k\n```\n\nHere is the content of **whats.new** file from\nthe distribution:\n\n```\nWhat's New in Norton Commander 5.5\n-----------------------------------\n\n* Drag & Drop\n\nDrag & Drop support now makes it even easier to manipulate your files between\npanels. You can drag as single file, or groups of files and directories.\n\nDrag from one panel to another to copy files, or hold down the ALT key to move\nfiles.\n\nYou can even drag files/directories to the button bar at the bottom of the\nscreen to invoked a file operation.\n\n* Filters\n\nNorton Commander 5.5 features advanced file selection techniques. File\nselection is now based on Operation Filters that affect all file operations\nlike copy, move, synchronise, delete and compress.\n\nOperation Filters allow the users to specify file selection based on file\nname, date and time, file size and even file attributes. This advanced\nselection criteria is traditionally confined to File Finder utilities,\nhowever Norton Commander integrates this feature at the heart of\nthe Commander kernel making it the best all-round file manager available\ntoday.\n\n* Synchronise Directories\n\nThe Norton Commander makes it easy to synchronise files/directories between\ntwo or more machines or network volumes. This feature will be particularly\nuseful for portable computer users that have to keep copies of Filters.\n\n* Compressed File Viewing\n\nNow you can view the contents of any file contained within a compressed file.\nSimply open the compressed file, select the file and press the View button.\n\n* Disk Utilities\n\nThe Norton Commander adds some useful Disk utilities to extend the\nfunctionality of the File Manager so that common day-to-day DOS activities\ncan be carried out from within the Commander environment.\n\n\t<> Format Diskette:\n\t\tFormat disks easily without worrying about how to use the DOS\n\t\tformat command.\n\n\t<> Copy Diskette:\n\t\tCreate a disk image and make multiple copies of a disk. Simpler\n\t\tand faster than the DOS copy command.\n\n\t<> Label Diskette:\n\t\tNow add a label to any DOS drive using this simple and useful\n\t\tutility.\n\n* Network Utilities\n\nThe Norton Commander now lets your perform a variety of operations across a LAN,\nusing a simple menu system and a familiar interface. You can send messages,\nview server volume information, attach to or detach from servers, and map or\nunmap drives.\n\nThe utilities are designed for Novell networks supporting Netware 3.x and\nNetware 4.x.\n\n\t<> Send Message:\n\t\tSend Messages and review details of users or groups of Users\n\t\ton the LAN.\n\n\t<> Attach/Detach Server:\n\t\tAttach to or Detach from a list of Servers easily with out\n\t\tneeding complex syntax.\n\n\t<> Drive Mappings:\n\t\tMap drives to servers with the click of a button.\n\n\t<> Server Information:\n\t\tProvides information regarding all networks on a LAN.\n\n* File Splitter\n\nThe Norton Commander 5.5 features a file Split and Merge utility that allows\nlarge files be broken down into small ones. Essential if you file wont fit\non one floppy disk. Split it up over a number of disks and remerge later\nonto another hard disk.\n\n* Disk Cleanup\n\nClean you hard disk of unwanted files created by other programs such as\nreadme, autosave and temporary files. Completely configurable to create your\nown file sets.\n\n* File Search\n\nThe Norton Commander File Finder has been completely rewritten and designed\nto provide the following advanced and useful features.\n\n\t<> Regular Expressions. You now have greater control in how you\n\t   define your search criteria when looking for files. You can\n\t   control what files are included and excluded during the search\n\t   and locate specific text patterns in files.\n\n\t<> File Find Panel. You can send the results of your search\n\t   operation to a standard Commander File Panel. This is useful when\n\t   you want to perform block operations on a group of files scattered\n\t   around different directories on your hard disk.\n\n\t<> Duplicate File Searching. You can now search for duplicate files on\n\t   your hard disk.\n\n\t<> Multiple Search locations. You can search multiple locations for\n\t   your files. You can also use environment variables like %PATH% to\n\t   guide your file search on your disks.\n\n\t<> Commander Line Support. You can launch the Norton Commander to find\n\t   essential files using command line switches. They offer the full\n\t   flexibility of the menu driven program.\n\nWhat's enhanced in the Norton Commander 5.5 ?\n--------------------------------------------\n\n* File Attributes\n\nNow you can select multiple files and directories and set the attributes of\nthe files using one simple step.\n\nUseful for marking all files in a nested directory structure as read-only.\n\n* Configuration Panel\n\nConfiguration has been moved to one location, making it easier to configure\nscreens, panels, screen savers, mouse and video characters.\n\n* System Information\n\nThe Norton Commander System Information has been extended to display\ninformation about memory arrangement, hardware configuration, and CMOS Status.\n\n* File Printing\n\nYou can now print the contents of files to a postscript printer.\n\n* Compression\n\nThe Norton Commander 5.5 now compresses up to 40,000 files, using a variety of\ncompression programs including ZIP, ARC, ARJ, PAK, LHARC and ZOO.\n\n* Delete Command\n\nAn improved Delete command now lets you delete all files in a directory but\nkeeps the directory structure intact. Great for developers archiving a\ndevelopment project who want to get rid of their MAP and LNK files.\n\n* Configuration\n\nThe Configuration of Norton Commander 5.5 has been consolidated into a single, easy-to-use dialog box.\nThrough this one interface users can configure the screen colours, confirmation options, compression\noptions and printer options for all the Commander utilities.\n\nOne new feature supported in the Norton Commander 5.5 is the ability to switch\nthe character set into a semi-graphical one that displays check-boxes and\nradio buttons as they appear in Windows.\n\n* Terminal emulation Program\n\nThe terminal emulation program has been modified to provide support for the\nnewer, more modern UI of Norton Commander 5.5, with support also provided\nfor Keyboard macros, INT-15, and NCSI. The product now also supports data\nconnections at up to 115,200 bps, so users with fast modems can avail of the\nspeed using this product. Access to CompuServe is improved with support for\nthe CompuServe-B file transfer protocol.\n\n* Copy Command\n\nThe Norton Commander Copy command has been modified\n\n\t<> Copy newer files only : this can have a dramatic effect on the\n\t   overall time to copy and synchronise directories from one machine\n\t   to another. Use in conjunction with the new Synchronise directories\n\t   command and you have the ideal File Manager for mobile computer\n\t   users.\n\n\t<> Check the destination disk space prior to starting a copy operation.\n\n* Screen Savers\n\nYou can now choose from a selection of 20 text based and graphical screen\nsavers.\n```\n\nStill version 5 in many way represents the pinnacle of development of Norton\nCommander and *can be viewed as a reference implementation for OFM*. From the quality\nof implementation point of view NC5 was more stable. The main enhancements introduced\nin NC5 are:\n\nThe archive VFS was probably the most important addition to the OFM paradigm\nin NC 5.0. Actually NC 4.0 also can show archive contents in panel, but unlike NC\n5.0 it cannot view archived files. As I mentioned before, the archive VFS was introduced\nin a guerilla fashion by OFM enthusiasts as add-ons to NC 3.0 (archive viewers with\nNC-like panel structure and operations were very popular addition to NC 3.0), but\nthe level of integration was limited. The archive VFS provides possibilities of\nworking with archives in a completely transparent way by viewing archives as directories.\n\nThe search VFS was the second important addition to OFM paradigm. Search panel\nprovided the following possibilities:\n\n> You can even create something called \"phantom directories\" to group files\n> together logically, but not physically. For instance, you may want to see\n> the names of all the program files on your disk, usually files that end\n> with the three letters \"EXE.\" Typically, each program is installed in a\n> separate directory, but using Disc Director you can create a phantom directory\n> called \"programs\" that contains every file ending in \"EXE.\" Then you could\n> attach a comment to each so that you could quickly see a description of\n> all the programs available in your computer.\n\nFor DOS version 5 of NC  was way too large. Here is an interesting\ncomment from 2009 discussion on Slashdot ([Midnight\nCommander Development Revived)](http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/01/26/1917254/Midnight-Commander-Development-Revived)\n\n> **Re:Norton is going to be pissed... (Score:3)**\n>\n> by Atilla (64444) writes: on Monday January 26 2009, @09:15PM (#26616043)\n> Homepage\n>\n> Norton Commander was great until it hit ver. 5, when it became bloatware. It\n> felt sluggish and ate a ton of memory, which was still pretty important then (especially\n> for those that still sported 640K-1M of RAM)...\n>\n> Volkov Commander became a great\n> substitute, since it was written in assembly and the executable was quite a bit\n> less than 100K in size (comparing to ~300K or so of NC executable).. It was so common\n> in some places (like Russia) that people thought there was something wrong with\n> a PC if NC or VC wasn't installed.\n>\n> \\*sigh\\*... The screen covered up by two big blue panels is forever etched onto\n> my retinas...\n> :-)\n\n## The Last of Mohicans: Norton Commander 5.5 (1998)\n\nAlthough \"official\" NC-line lost its overall leadership after NC 3 (one \njust need to compare NC 4.0 with Volkov Commander, or NC 5.0 and DN 1.35 to see\nthe difference), the inertia preserved the importance of the line till the very\nend of the DOS era. NC 5.5 was probably the version that ended NC-line as such.\nIt was released in 1998, one year after [FAR](../Ch05/far.shtml).\n\nAlthough at this time\n[Norton Commander for Windows](../Ch05/norton_commander_for_windows.shtml),\nthe GUI version of Norton Commander already existed (it was released in 1996) and\nwas a 32-bit program, Symantec did not rewrite command line version of NC for 32\nbit subsystem. It remained DOS program. That was the major blunder and predetermined\nthe huge success of FAR as better, faster and 32-bit command line alternative.\n\nFunctionally NC 5.5 is nearly identical to version NC 5.0, but provides Long\nFile Names (LFN) support and has \"wide mode\" to view such names. There was also\nversion 5.51 released on July 1, 1998.\n\n[OFM1999 standard](../Ofm_08.shtml) is largely based on the compatibility\nwith NC 5 (see [Chapter 8](../Ofm_08.shtml)). In one\n[document](http://www.symantec.com/press/1997/n971211.html)\nSymantec mentioned that Carey Nachenberg was the architect of last versions of Norton\nCommander (I met with him on several antivirus conferences but unfortunately never\ndiscussed this topic):\n\n> At 7 p.m. PST on Dec. 17, Symantec's Nachenberg,\n> principal software engineer for Norton AntiVirus, will join the Egghead Computer\n> Palace. Nachenberg is responsible for researching and developing new technologies\n> for the Norton AntiVirus family of products. He has worked at Symantec for seven\n> years as a software engineer and ***architect on Norton Commander***,\n> Norton Desktop for DOS and Norton AntiVirus. Nachenberg has designed and developed\n> numerous anti-virus technologies including the NAV 3.0 engine, the Striker system,\n> Symantec's Bloodhound and NAVEX modular engine technologies.\n\n## Stillborn -- Norton Commander for OS/2\n\nNorton Commander for OS/2 was released by Symantec in\nDecember 1992,\nbut was not well designed and never was popular. It was soon discontinued. Here\nis relevant information from\n[os2 mail list:](https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.os2.apps/browse_thread/thread/c6009f38a81208a5/fc109e421503be6e#fc109e421503be6e)\n","body_html":"<h2 id=\"introduction\">Introduction</h2>\n<p>-- Confucius</p>\n<p>Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce\nin individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.</p>\n<p><em>-- Alvin Toffler</em></p>\n<p>Norton Commander for DOS is the original line of Orthodox file managers that\nexists in five major versions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. Only the last one has\nan additional sub-version (nc 5.5). All versions are still used (mostly by DOS enthusiasts)\nand are often posted on the abandonware sites. What is interesting, despite clear\nsuperiority of later versions, there are still users of version 1.0 of NC. For example,\nSymantec site contains an FAQ article:\n<a href=\"http://service1.symantec.com/support/nortoncommanderkb.nsf/036ba7159addd4c3852566a4005d608d/a381b5adeba882b185256e22005982a3?OpenDocument&amp;src=bar_sch_nam\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Is Norton Commander Version 1.0 or 2.0 Supported Under Windows NT 5 (Beta)?</a>.\nAlso in October of 2005 I received the following email addressed to me as an editor\nof the OFM page at the Softpanorama website ( Orthodox\nFile Managers: Home of the OFM standards):</p>\n<blockquote><p>Norton Commander 1.0</p>\n<p>Hi,</p>\n<p>I&#39;m still using Norton Commander version 1.00 (1986) in Windows 98SE, even\nin Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP.</p>\n<p>I prefer it&#39;s small size and fast, and I can write with it small batch programs.</p>\n<p>Bye</p>\n<p>Alvaro Alonso\nFrom: Bogota, Colombia (South America)</p></blockquote>\n<p>It was probably one of the most popular file manager of the DOS era, which along\nwith <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XTree\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Xtree</a> remains one of the few\nprograms which managed to transcend their DOS roots and Norton Commander descendants\n(OFM managers) now exist on all popular OSes. The first version of NC (1.0) was\ndesigned and written by John Socha in 1984-1989. We provide a short biographical\nnotes about him <a href=\"#Jonh_Socha\">later in this chapter</a>.</p>\n<p>Starting from version 2 Norton Commander got a cult following, somewhat comparable\nwith the success of 123, WordPerfect and MS Word, especially in former USSR and\nEastern Europe, where blue screen of Norton Commander became the synonym of DOS.\nMany users from this region never suspected that this was not a native DOS interface.\nIn Russian the words &quot;Norton&quot; and &quot;Commander&quot; became part of PC jargon and are widely\nused as synonyms for file manager. Please refer to Chapter\n1 for more exploration of this phenomenon.</p>\n<p>Norton Commander was taught as a part of introductory computer classes in most\nof the former USSR region as well as Eastern European colleges and universities.\nThat means that all graduates were more or less knowledgeable Norton Commander users\nand Norton Commander, in essence, served as standard interface for DOS. I would\nlike to stress it again that many people from this region never suspected that this\nwas not the part of DOS but an additional utility. In DOS days it even affected\nhiring process: the mastery of Norton Commander was irrevocably linked with mastery\nof DOS in minds of many Eastern European IT hiring managers.</p>\n<p>The initial version of Norton Commander was called VDOS (Visual DOS)and was written in a blend of C and assembler. As John Socha recollected\nthe events (personal communication):</p>\n<blockquote><p>I started work on what became known as the Norton Commander in the fall of\n1984 <strong><em>while I was still a graduate student in Applied Physics at Cornell\nUniversity.</em></strong> The first versions were entirely in assembly language, but\nthat was too time-consuming, so I soon switched to a blend of C and assembly\nlanguage at a time when most &quot;real programmers&quot; wouldn&#39;t touch C.</p>\n<p>At the time I called it Visual DOS, with the abbreviation of VDOS instead\nof the usual two-letter abbreviations used at the time. The program\nitself was inspired by several things coming together. I had a contract to write\nsome books for Microsoft Press and actually spent some time in Bellevue, WA\nworking on site. I&#39;d take two months off from graduate school and write a book.</p>\n<p>The second book was to be a book of small utility programs like I used to\nwrite for Softalk Magazine (such as whereis, scrnsave, etc.), <strong><em>but I never\nfinished writing the book because one small utility took on a life of it&#39;s own.</em></strong></p></blockquote>\n<p>John Socha received both MS and PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University.\nAfter graduation from the university John became the first director of research\nand development for now defunct Peter Norton Computing. He was the second programmer\nin the company, hired shortly after Brad Kingsbury.</p>\n<p>At this time Peter Norton Computing was a one-man show. It was founded by\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Norton\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Peter Norton</a> who was one\nof the pioneer entrepreneurs in commercial PC software development. He formed his\ncompany in 1982 with $30,000 and an IBM computer (the company was sold for 70 million\nto Symantec in 1990; a nice return on investment). In 1992 Smart Computing paper\n<a href=\"http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/1992/may92/0503/92n0503.asp\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Investigating The Lost Files Of Peter Norton, PC Pioneer</a> Gillian Coolidge wrote:</p>\n<blockquote><p>The story goes that Peter Norton worked in the aerospace industry back in\nthe late 1970s, but he lost his job when Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed\nall made severe cutbacks. To pay the bills, Norton took contract computer programming\njobs.</p>\n<p>One day, Norton accidentally deleted an important file, a common-enough error.\nInstead of re-entering all the information, however, he thought he&#39;d write a\ncomputer program that would recover the lost data. (Some people are <em>really</em>\nmotivated.) That program not only rescued the lost file, but its framework also\neventually helped make Peter Norton very rich, and very famous.</p>\n<p>Norton called his program the <em>Norton Utilities</em>...</p>\n<p>This was in 1982, and Norton marketed the program (primarily on foot) through\nthe one-man software publishing company he formed, Peter Norton Computing Inc.\n(PNCI). The next year, PNCI released the second version of Norton Utilities,\nwhich was actually made up of several smaller programs that rescued ``lost&#39;&#39;\nfiles and disk contents.</p></blockquote>\n<p>In 1984, PNCI reached $1 million in revenue, and <strong><em>version 3.0 of the Norton Utilities was released.</em></strong> At the time Peter\nNorton had three clerical people working for PNCI but he was doing all the software\ndevelopment plus book writing, manuals writing and running the business. It is important\nto understand that th company actually was a one-man show with some supporting staff.\nSo revenue that came with version 3.0 make it self-evident that the company needs\nto expand by hiring programmers. Brad Kingsbury, who was the author of NCD -- a\nutility that was later integrated into Norton Commander as &quot;NCD mode&quot; recollects\nthose early days in the following way:</p>\n<blockquote><p>I joined Peter Norton Computing in 1985, as the companys first programmer.\nMy previous employer had just closed its doors, so I had sent my resume to a\nfew companies in the area. Peter responded, flew me to Seattle where he was\nvacationing for the summer, and hired me on the spot. Because Peter was still\non vacation, I worked out of a hotel in Seattle for my first two weeks on the\njob. After that, <strong><em>I spent another six months working\nfrom the Nortons kitchen table.</em></strong> When Eileen, Peters wife, started\ncooking dinner, I knew it was time to call it a day and head home.</p>\n<p>... My job responsibility was to develop the software, and that&#39;s what I did.\nI just developed the programs, and <strong><em>that was pretty\nmuch the last day Peter programmed.</em></strong></p>\n<p><strong><em>The PNCI staff was up to five now. Peter did\nhis writing, managing and marketing from the den of his home. The three clerical\npeople worked upstairs...</em></strong></p>\n<p>Peter Norton has always been a laid-back person. His whole philosophy, and I&#39;ve\nheard him quote this many times, was, &quot;We&#39;re going to do this business stuff\nwhile it&#39;s fun.&quot; So that was our primary focus that first it has to be fun,\nand second it has to make money.</p>\n<p>&quot;I never knew what would happen if we didn&#39;t make any money and it was still\nfun. It probably wouldn&#39;t have been too fun at that point, especially for Peter,&#39;&#39;\nsays Kingsbury. &quot;But he wasn&#39;t out to create the next greatest generation of\nsoftware, he wasn&#39;t out to make a whole lot of money. It was really to have\nfun and he enjoyed the flexibility of not having to work under someone else.&#39;&#39;</p>\n<p><strong><em>PNCI reached $5 million in revenues in 1986.</em></strong>\nIt published several other software packages but, according to Kingsbury, the\nNorton Utilities was still PNCI&#39;s cash cow. Utility software was gaining wider\nacceptance in the microcomputer industry as users realized the advantages of\ndata recovery.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Peter Norton essentially created a new class of software for PCs: &quot;data recovery&quot;\nsoftware, the very profitable class of commercial software that soon will attract\nmany competitors (with PC Tools as the most prominent). Quoting Peter Norton,</p>\n<blockquote><p>&quot;Why did The Norton Utilities become such popular software? Well, industry\nwisdom has it that software becomes standard either by providing superior capabilities\nor by solving problems that were previously unsolvable. In 1982, when I sat\ndown at my PC to write Unerase, I was solving a common problem to which there\nwas no readily available solution.&quot;[1]</p></blockquote>\n<p>Peter Norton quickly realized that he tapped gold mine\nand he made a commitment to build the business.\nAnd that&#39;s one of the reasons why he hired Kingsbury and Socha.</p>\n<p>PNCI\npublished several, more capable with each iteration versions of Norton Utilities\nfor almost a decade of its existence. Peter Norton was also a gifted writer and\nalong with columns and that were an important part of PR for the company he also\nwrote several books. His most influential book was co-authored with John Socha and\nwas the best book to learn Intel assembler for more then a decade. BTW the famous\nquote *&quot;Assembly language programming is an extravagant waste of human\ntalent and should be avoided whenever possible&quot;* is from 1986 edition :-)</p>\n<p>The core of\n&quot;Norton Utilities&quot;\nwas Peter Norton FAT file undelete utility. It allowed files to be restored\nif the clusters the file occupied before deletion were not yet overwritten. In FAT\nto restore the file it was enough to restore the first letter of the directory entry\n(a feature of the\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table\" title=\"File Allocation Table\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">FAT file system</a> used in\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS\" title=\"MS-DOS\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">MS-DOS</a>, albeit\none that was not originally documented). Following the initial release Peter Norton\nwas made Utilities Editor of\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Magazine\" title=\"PC Magazine\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">PC Magazine</a>.\nThe package quickly\ngrow and in the second version (version 4, 1986) contained approximately two dozens\nof utilities (Brad Kingsbury\nparticipated in writing of this version as he was hired in summer of 1985; he was\na talented programmer and made several original contributions like\nndd).   Linda Dudinyak\nwas Software Architect at Peter Norton Computing  from 1987 till 1990 and also made important\ncontributions both to Norton commander and Norton Utilities.</p>\n<p>Among the utilities\nthat were included in NU 4.0 package:</p>\n<p>Later several other extremely successful\nprogram were added:</p>\n<p>Here is how Peter Norton achievements\nwere described in 1987 by Washington Post article\n<a href=\"http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1335328.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Lost and Found; A Program\nto Recover `Erased&#39; Data - The Washington Post - HighBeam Research</a></p>\n<blockquote><p>*If they think of Peter Norton at all, most owners of personal computers probably\nthink of him as &quot;the disk man,&quot; or perhaps as the finder of lost files.* This\nis not completely fair; Norton has spread enlightenment on other aspects of\ncomputing hardware and programming. But only a small fraction of those who use\na PC every day ever feel a need for his &quot;Programmer&#39;s Guide&quot; or his &quot;Assembly\nLanguage Book&quot;-though, should such a need arise, they might be inclined to turn\nfirst to Norton.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Peter Norton also\ninvented &quot;personalization&quot; idea of software products marketing: usage of the same\nphoto model (himself) for the line of products (the idea which survived acquisition of the\ncompany by Symantec and still used in the Norton line of products). Now he is known\nmainly due to his role as a photo model on the boxes of Norton Utilities and other\nSymantec products belonging to a &quot;Norton line&quot; (until 2002 I think), but in old\ndays his company was a very innovative company like Borland, Lotus and several\nother &quot;DOS software start-ups that gave DOS &quot;behemoths&quot; like Microsoft and Lotus run for their\nmoney.</p>\n<p>Another interesting part of their software portfolio were\nfamous Norton Guides, one of the first successful pre-HTML hypertext implementation\nfor DOS. Later versions of Norton commander (starting from version 3.0 used this\nformat for help). I think more then a dozen Norton Guides were produced and later guides in this\nformat continued to appear despite the fact that the product was abandoned after\nacquisition of Norton Computing by Symantec: the format was reverse engineered and people just used\nit to produce their own guides. The total number of books that were\nconverted to NG format is probably in hundreds. Among the original Norton Guides\nwere:</p>\n<p>John Socha\nis also the man who coined the term <em>screen saver</em> and probably created the\nfirst one. Actually a rudimentary screen saver (<em>the night sky with stars</em>) was the second\nthe most distinctive feature of Norton Commander 3.0 along with famous two panel\nblue screen. This is the screen saver that many Eastern European would call a classic\nDOS screensaver; many associated it not with Norton Commander, but with DOS.\nIn 2001 Joe Forster wrote\n<a href=\"http://sta.c64.org/starnite.zip\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Starry Night</a> (2001-05-08),\nresident screen saver that accurately reproduces the classic Norton Commander screen\nsaver. You can download and try it.</p>\n<p>The initial years of Norton commander development (1984-1988) were years of triumphant\nascent of MS-DOS as the most widely used operating system on the planet, which rapidly\nreplaced CP/M starting from late 1983. And rising tide lifts all boats: many programming\nproducts created for DOS became dominant in their class and even served as de-facto\nstandards for porting to other OSes. And that was not limited to spreadsheets, word\nprocessors and computer games. Utilities were also a fast growing field. Crazy,\nhigh stress and high pressure atmosphere of the first commercial software start-ups\nis now semi-forgotten. But it was the first commercial software &quot;gold rush&quot; which\nlater in a slightly different manner it was replayed\nduring dot-com bubble.</p>\n<p>The larger then life figures of superheroes of this DOS revolution and subsequent\n&quot;gold rush&quot; rivals the best of science fiction. Now such intense atmosphere can\nprobably be found only in game companies. They did not invent any major new software\nbut they had the unique blend of the ability to do high-quality programming, along\nwith the ability to market the product and gradually make it better so that it becomes\na successful, profitable business. The most successful of them possessed the unique\nblend of the qualities of an software developer plus a drive of a construction foreman,\nand a deep understanding of the market typical for a stock broker.</p>\n<p>Personal computers for sale in the late 70&#39;s just before DOS did not come with\nanything other than a very rudimentary software. IBM mainframe software was very\nexpensive and time of those computer time was sold per hour (say, $70 per hour).\nThat situation changed forever with the launch of DOS. Personal computer and associated\nDOS software represented a revolt against the establishment and the first DOS software\nentrepreneurs in this sense were revolutionaries that destroyed old order. You can\nread more about this period in the book\n<a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0887306292/ref=nikolaibezroukov\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Hard Drive Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire</a> by James Wallace\nand Jim Erickson published in 1993 when the memory about this period still did not\ndissipate irrevocably.</p>\n<p>All early players in this new industry were hands-on Swiss-knife type of personalities\nable to work extremely long hours as programmers. and simultaneously be a good technical\nleaders/technical architects. The crazy, rat race atmosphere in many of software\ndevelopment startups was well described in Hard Drive, the book about early years\nof Microsoft.</p>\n<p>So it does not surprise me that John Socha later organized several successful\nstart-ups. As one famous athlete once said, &quot;the harder I practice, the luckier\nI get&quot; and that is applicable to the successful software entrepreneurs of this period.\nThose start-ups hired the brightest programmers with demonstrated practical abilities\nwho were also expected to work crushingly long hours, with minimal supervision but\nas a team. Those who were winning did it because they were better and smarter and\nwere selling to customers superior products at cheaper prices. Most of those early\nDOS software entrepreneurs would be as successful in other industries, they just\nhappened to be right time at the right place and managed to push &quot;hard core&quot; business-before-pleasant\nenvelope to the limit to survive, outsmart competitors and prosper. Peter Norton\ninvestment of less then $50,000 in 1982 turned into 70 millions profit when he sold\nthe company in 1991. Still it was a tiny player with revenues in 1985 approaching\n5 millions. In comparison Microsoft, the largest company in this industry, in 1985\n(just prior to its IPO) had revenues 140 million, a pre-tax profit margin of approximately\n34%, no long-term debt, and cash reserves of 38 million.</p>\n<p>It is interesting to note the initially Norton Commander has had a strong competitor,\nthe competitor who beat them to the finish line in version 1.0 and which topped\nthe reviewers charts for another five years. Here is how Jeff Johnson\n<a href=\"http://www.jeffreycjohnson.com/xtreehistory.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">recollected the events</a>\nthat led to launch of Xtree in April 1985 ( Xtree actually was\nlaunched a year before Norton Commander):</p>\n<blockquote><p>A couple of months later we had hundreds of floppy disks\nand several hard disks cram-packed with files and no idea where anything was.\nWe had no way to manage all the files - and there hangs the tale.</p>\n<p>You see nobody had a way of managing files. At least not any reasonably easy\nway. There just weren&#39;t any utilities to do it. There was a utility for CP/M\nwritten by a friend of ours, Mike Karas, that we had been using, and some command-line-oriented\nprograms, but none of them addressed the concept of managing a directory structure.\nYou know, paths and stuff like that.</p>\n<p>Which made us all say, &quot;Hmmmm?&quot;</p>\n<p>So we thought about it. We talked about it. We shouted over it. We threatened\none another with ancient Klingon curses. In other words, we sat down like adults\nand reasoned the thing out.</p>\n<p>We discussed different kinds of tree structures, recursive processing, and\nother technical stuff. Drawings and diagrams came and went like the kitchen\ntrash.</p>\n<p>Among the subjects discussed were how the program would represent the DOS\ndirectory structure on-screen, and what the screen might look like. I drew a\npicture of this outline on a white board. It looked like a tree that needed\nwater. It was a swell picture but no one thought it could be done. Impossible,\nthey said.</p>\n<p>Famous last words.</p>\n<p><strong><em>I went home on a Friday, programmed like mad\nuntil Sunday, and showed it to Henry on Monday. A week later we decided to try\nout the tree display in a backup program we were writing for Epson.</em></strong>\nThey liked it. And we had the beginnings of a product.</p>\n<p>In December of 1984, we began really working on what you now know as XTree.\nOur feature list was huge, and a lot of these features didn&#39;t make it into the\noriginal version of XTree but were added later in XTreePro and XTreePro Gold.\nI was working full time on the program, Ken worked on it between other tasks,\nand everyone else chipped in as needed. When enough of the program was written\nso it could be used, we used it ourselves. We felt that if other people were\ngoing to rely on the program, it had to be rock solid for everyday use, easy\nto learn, and a cinch to operate.</p>\n<p>If it&#39;s not yet obvious, I don&#39;t want you to think that I&#39;m some kind of\nmad genius and created XTree all by myself. Far from it. Whenever you&#39;re trying\nto do something that&#39;s never been done before, lots of people are involved.</p>\n<p>That&#39;s the way it was with XTree. Dale made sure it had plenty of whiz-bang\nfeatures. Henry made sure we didn&#39;t write any bad code. Tom made sure the user\ninterface was consistent. (His unrelenting efforts to maintain consistency in\nthe interface really weren&#39;t appreciated until the hundreds of reviews and millions\nof users began expressing their pleasure at how easy XTree is to use. Of course,\nback then, every time we thought XTree was ready, Tom had just one more small\nrevision. Right.) Finally, there was Ken, bug catcher supreme.</p>\n<p>All that was left was a name.</p>\n<p>Arletta, my wife, gets credit for that one. We had been throwing names around\nthe office for months and no one could agree on anything. One night, late at\nnight, very late at night, she suggested, &quot;XTree.&quot; You know, like &quot;X-Tree, X-Tree\nread all about it!&quot;</p>\n<p>Pretty stupid, I thought, but jotted it down.</p>\n<p>When I mentioned it to everyone at the office the next day, they said, &quot;Pretty\nstupid,&quot; and before you knew it we had a name - XTree.</p>\n<p>Okay, we&#39;ve got a name, we&#39;ve got a program, we&#39;ve also got a problem; how\ndo we get it into the stores so people like you can buy it and we can make ba-zillions\nof dollars? At the time, we had two choices: We could either publish it ourselves\nor find someone who knew more about software publishing than we did - and in\nearly 1985 there weren&#39;t a lot of people to choose from.</p>\n<p>On March 1, 1985, we made the decision to publish XTree ourselves. Which\nis when Dale took charge and in a moment of sheer insanity vowed to have XTree\nready to sell at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco on April 1,</p>\n<ol start=\"1985\"><li><p>Dale promised to have XTree packaged; the manual completed, written, and</p><p>printed; and all the hundreds other details required to bring a product to market...ready\nin 30 days. As this was a seemingly impossible task, we thought April Fools&#39;\nDay was an appropriate choice for our premiere.</p></li></ol>\n<p>What we didn&#39;t know was Dale had an ace up his sleeve... Michael Cahlin,\npresident of Cahlin/Williams Communications.</p>\n<p>In the next four weeks, Cahlin had the product packaged; the cover designed\nand printed, press materials created and syndicated columnists; the first XTree\nbrochure, XTree Read All About It, written, produced, and printed; and along\nwith Dale Sinor and Judy Mason, had XTree&#39;s booth at the West Coast Computer\nFaire set up. <strong><em>(Rumor has it that when Cahlin hired\nBob Cabeen to actually design the first XTree package, he gave Bob only seven\ndays to create it. When Bob protested, Cahlin is alleged to have said, &quot;Look,\nBob, God created the universe in six days - all I want is a package design.&quot;\nWhen Bob came through in five days, the rumor continues, he replied, &quot;Show that\nto God!&quot;)</em></strong></p>\n<p>Of course, Dale had his own miracles to perform. Two days before the show,\nhe went to the typesetters to pick up the final proofs for the manual and discovered\nthe typesetter had been evicted and was ducking everyone. Dale finally tracked\nhim down, but the guy would only exchange the proofs for cash - something we\nweren&#39;t exactly knee-deep in. <strong><em>While the countdown\nto the West Coast Computer Faire continued, Dale found the cash, got the proofs,\nrushed them to the printer, then to the bindery, and waited for them, refusing\nto let them out of his sight. He left Los Angeles at 1:30am. Four hours later,\nhe pulled into Moscone Center in San Francisco, carried the boxes of manuals,\nsoftware cases, cover inserts, and brochures inside, and calmly began assembling\nthe booth. The show opened at 9:00am.</em></strong></p>\n<p>And so it goes.</p>\n<p>It&#39;s ironic that the original XTree was officially introduced on April 1,</p>\n<ol start=\"1985\"><li><p>The West Coast Computer Faire, at the time, was one of the most popular</p><p>computer shows in the country. I hate to sound like your father, but this was\nback in the old days when computer shows were a far cry from the slick conventions\nyou see today. These were end-user shows, and there were so many silicon-type\nbargains at these shows that they made the 24 bucks the Indians sold Manhattan\nfor seem a bit high.</p></li></ol>\n<p><strong><em>We sold XTree version 1.0 for only $39.95 at\nthat show, and we were literally selling it from the front of the booth while\nfrantically putting the software packages together in the back!</em></strong>\n(And now they&#39;re a bonafide collectors item.) We shared a ten-by-ten\nbooth with a small software publisher, who, as fate would have it, almost published\nthe original XTree. The president&#39;s name was Pete Ryan, and knowing a good thing\nwhen he saw one, he became XTree&#39;s product manager six months later and eventually\nworked his way up to marketing vice president and chief wheeler-dealer.</p>\n<p>Within weeks after the show, XTree was in the hands of John Dvorak, Jerry\nPournelle, and all those other demigods of hi-tech who decide the fate of products.\nDvorak, et al., loved the product, and positive reviews appeared one after another.\nNear as I can figure, XTree was quite simply the right product, at the right\nprice, at the right time: inexpensive software that solved a common problem\nand was easy to use. A rare beast in those days, or any days.\n<strong><em>In November 1985, PC Magazine gave XTree their prestigious\nEditors Choice Award. (XTreePro, released in 1987, received the same award,\nas did XTreePro Gold in 1990.)</em></strong> Other reviews and awards followed,\nand following them were orders from distributors and retailers. ...And the rest\nis software history.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Due to tremendous popularity in the\nUSSR Norton Commander also has some cultural influences. First of all the word &quot;Norton&quot;\nbecame almost synonym to orthodox file manager in Russian language. It also generated\nan elaborate series of computer humor stories like the story of conflict between\nNorton Commander and Digger (an addictive DOS game):</p>\n<blockquote><p>&quot;You eat too long and way too much private Digger ! ...\n&quot;</p></blockquote>\n<p>the Norton Commander speech to the DOS\nfaithful in the face of growing number of Windows defectors (imitates arcane style\nof Politburo&#39;s announcements (&quot;false values&quot;, &quot;our enemies&quot;))</p>\n<blockquote><p>&quot;Comrades, we should reject false values which are instilled by our enemies\n! The fact that a Windows GUI user is happier than a command line user is similar\nto the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one...&quot;</p></blockquote>\n<p>and about theincompatibility\nof Norton Commander and alcohol (which is probably the best one of the series):</p>\n<blockquote><p>A drunk programmer is sitting behind the computer with Norton Commander on\nthe screen. Both left and right panel displays the content of disk C:. &quot;Why\ndo I need two disks C: with exactly the same files?&quot; thinks the drunk, it&#39;s\nonly waste of disk space. Then he selects all the files and directories on the\nactive panel and clicks F8.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Here is the actual entry from one of the freshman quizzes submitted to me on\nthe first lab for the &quot;Introduction to computing &quot; course in Kiev University of\nCommerce and Economics (which at this point replaced Norton Commander with Volkov\nCommander as a standard shell in all computer labs in 1992-1994):</p>\n<blockquote><p>Q: What is the name of OS in which you performed the assignment?</p>\n<p>A: Volkov Commander.</p></blockquote>\n<p>It is interesting to note the\n<a href=\"http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/nort.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Emperor Norton\nI</a> was a real, Don Quixote-like figure of the US history (ca. 1815 January\n8, 1880). Joshua Norton was a businessman in San Francisco who the 1840&#39;s, just\nbefore the Gold Rush, tried to corner the market on rice and failed. He went from\nbeing wealthy to being broke overnight and the experience influenced his mental\nstability. A couple of months after this event, he put on a formal admiral&#39;s uniform,\ncomplete with gold braid and epaulets and strode in to the office of the newspaper.\nHe handed the editor a large, official looking proclamation which stated in quite\nformal language that, due to popular demand, he hereby declared himself Emperor\nNorton I of San Francisco, California, and Mexico. He bade all his subjects show\nhim loyalty and the other courtesies due a person of such eminent stature. As\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Wikipedia</a>\nnoted:</p>\n<blockquote><p>Though he was generally considered insane, or\nat least highly\n[eccentric](<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccentricity_</a>(behavior%2529 &quot;Eccentricity (behavior)&quot;), the citizens of San Francisco (and the world at large) in the\nmid-to-late 19th century celebrated his presence, his humor, and his deedsamong\nthe most notorious being his &quot;order&quot; that the\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_United_States\" title=\"Congress of the United States\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">U.S. Congress</a> be dissolved by force, and his numerous decrees calling for\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Bridge\" title=\"San Francisco Bay Bridge\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">a bridge</a> to be built across\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay\" title=\"San Francisco Bay\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">San Francisco Bay</a>. The King in\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain\" title=\"Mark Twain\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Mark Twain</a>&#39;s\n<em><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn\" title=\"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</a></em> is reportedly modeled after him.</p></blockquote>\n<p>He is considered a saint by the followers of\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism\" title=\"Discordianism\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Discordianism</a>\nand is referenced repeatedly in the seminal work of the religion, the\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Discordia\" title=\"Principia Discordia\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Principia Discordia</a>. I think that he can be considered as a saint in OFM religion\ntoo :-).  People who are using OFMs when Windows-style GUI interface in file\nmanagers is so dominant are often considered <em>&quot;insane, or at least highly eccentric&quot;</em>\ntoo...</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-timeline\">The Timeline</h2>\n<p>The history of development of Norton Commander spans approximately 15 years:\nfrom 1984 till 1999. The first release was in May of 1986. At least 13 versions\nof Norton Commander were commercially released (not counting localized versions;\nwith them it would be almost 30). Here is the approximate chronology (please help\nme to correct the missing versions and/or wrong dates):</p>\n<p>Due to historical importance of each we will discuss those versions in the order\nthey were released. Please note that two Windows versions (Norton Commander for\nWindows 95/NT v. 1.0x and 2.0x*<em>)*</em> are discussed in\na different chapter.</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-initial-version-of-norton-commander-nc-1-0-1986\">The initial version of Norton Commander: NC 1.0 (1986)</h2>\n<p>MS DOS 3.1/3.2 was released in 1985 and opened the golden age of DOS programming.\nIt was during this time the most interesting and long lasting DOS utilities were\ncreated.</p>\n<p>Among many talented software authors who were determined to dig this Eldorado\nof personal PCs was former physicist John Socha, who continued work of his VDOS\nprogram after joining the company created by Peter Norton. As I already mentioned\nafter graduation from the university John become\nthe first director\nof research and development for Peter Norton Computing a pretty funny title for\ncompany which consisted of just three programmers including the founder.\nIn May 1986 he released the product under the name of Norton Commander (NC 1.0).\nHis career as &quot;Chief OFM designer&quot; was pretty short, less then five years: he left\nthe field in 1991 when the company was sold to Symantec.</p>\n<p>Norton Commander was probably the\nsecond commercial product from the company -- the first was\nNorton Utilities (product\nwhich like Norton Commander was later destroyed by Symantec) which introduced among\nother things concept of file recovery in DOS. A box with NC 1.0 included:</p>\n<blockquote><p>A floppy. Manual 1986, 120 pages. Includes handwritten note from Peter\nNorton Computing with replacement page 118 and apology. Registration postcard\nwith $.14 stamp. Order form. Keyboard Reference Card for PC XT keyboard (with\nten function keys, F1-F10).</p></blockquote>\n<p>Actually assignment of View/Edit, Copy/Move, Make folder/Delete operations in\nOFMs are difficult to understand without knowing about 83 keys\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_keyboard\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">XT keyboard</a> with ten\nF-keys at the left edge of keyboard in two rows F1-F2, F3-F4, F5-F6, F7-F8, and\nF9-F10. This layout disappeared with introduction of AT keyboard where function\nkeys were moved to the top making OFM operations less natural. Later some keyboard\ntried to incorporate &quot;XT-style&quot; F-keys into AT keyboard layout, but none was particular\nsuccessful (the most long lasting and popular was probably\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_AnyKey\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Gateway AnyKey)</a>. Situation\nchanged to the better with the growth of popularity of\nprogrammable\nkeyboards). . Some currently produced (and popular) programmable keyboards contain\none (Microsoft\nSidewinder X4 Keyboard , $49) or two (Logitech G110, $55) &quot;XT-style&quot; line of\nprogrammable keys that can be programmed to perform &quot;classic&quot; OFM functions .</p>\n<p>In this version there is no upper menu, no hypertext help file, but all major\nfile operations are present: at the bottom of the screen you can see traditional\nfor OFMs mini-help bar with the set of operations that we got used to. There is\nalso a possibility to hide left or panels (or both). It is interesting that in version\n1.0 there is no &quot;classic&quot; full-screen command window mode that we used to: only\nhalf-screen command window mode was implemented. Actually this way the program was\ncloser to the visual shell.</p>\n<p>The program is still operational in Windows XP. What is interesting is that from\nversion 1.0 NC was able to use mouse and the mouse still works on XP: a really amazing\nlevel of compatibility. Look and feel of the panels are close to &quot;classic&quot; view\nwith blue underground and white letters that eventually became the trademark of\nthis class of file managers.</p>\n<p>Here is the screenshot (please note half-screen mode) and some output from shell\ncommands visible at the lower part of the screen:</p>\n<blockquote><p></p></blockquote>\n<p>Both nc.mnu and nc.ext\nfiles that give OFM so much power and flexibility were also present in this first\ncommercial version of the product. Unfortunately I do not have the full distribution\nof the first version. It would be interesting to see the contents. Here the listing\nof the most complete version that I have:</p>\n<blockquote><pre><code>07/06/1986  08:27 AM             1,627 CURSOR.TBL\n06/18/1986  03:37 PM                28 DIRINFO\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            65,840 NC.EXE\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM               149 NC.EXT\n11/23/2007  10:36 PM               725 NC.MNU\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            11,468 NCSMALL.EXE\n06/27/1985  05:23 PM                60 NPROMPT.BAT\n               8 File(s)         79,897 bytes\n</code></pre></blockquote>\n<pre><code>07/06/1986  08:27 AM             1,627 CURSOR.TBL\n06/18/1986  03:37 PM                28 DIRINFO\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            65,840 NC.EXE\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM               149 NC.EXT\n11/23/2007  10:36 PM               725 NC.MNU\n05/15/1986  01:00 PM            11,468 NCSMALL.EXE\n06/27/1985  05:23 PM                60 NPROMPT.BAT\n               8 File(s)         79,897 bytes\n</code></pre>\n<p>Working distribution of version 1.0 needed just three files: one 66K executable\n<strong>nc.exe</strong> (ncsmall.exe\nwas just a swapper for nc.exe) and\ntwo optional files: <strong>nc.ext</strong> that contains extensions\nmappings table and (optional) <strong>nc.mnu</strong> with the\ncollection of scripts/program invocation strings with one letter hotkeys (I am not\nsure that I have the original version of this file). File\n<strong>nc.ini</strong> that often can be found in old versions of NC archives does\nnot belongs to the distribution: it is an initialization files that was created\nthe first time the program run and updated after that on each exit.</p>\n<p>It is important to note that that idea of user menu and extension menu (user-definable\nfile associations) was present in this version of NC as at this time this was pretty\nnovel idea. Here is the content of the original version of\nNC.EXT distributed with NC 1.0. Please\nnote the presence of macro variables !\nand !.! (name of the current\nfile without extension and name of the current file with the extension, respectively):</p>\n<pre><code>doc:    word !\nbak:    word !.!\nwks:    \\ver1a\\123\nwk?:    \\ver2_0\\123\nxtk:    !:xtalk !\ndbf:    !\\dbase !\n:    type !\nasm:    pe !.!\n*:    rem no run file for this extension</code></pre>\n<p>The menu file (supposedly original) that I have contained the following:</p>\n<pre><code>D:    Run this item by pressing the D key\n    dir /w\n\nF1:    Volume label and directory\n    Vol\n    dir\n\nCheck free disk space\n    chkdsk\n\n&#39; This is a comment. Any line that starts with a single quote\n&#39; is a comment line, and is ignored by the Commander.</code></pre>\n<p>In a way Norton Commander was approximately 10 years ahead of its time as those\nideas got into mainstream only in late 90th with the Windows 95.</p>\n<p>As I mentioned before there was no upper menu. Instead pressing F9 produced a\nsetup screen that has most of the functionality:</p>\n<blockquote><p></p></blockquote>\n<p>I would like to stress it again that most of the features that are typical for\nOrthodox Managers as a class were already present in this version. For example all\nF-keys assignments were present (F1-F10). There is also a rudimentary viewer and\nbuilt-in editor. Help is just one screen reference to hotkeys. BTW it contains the\nfamous phrase &quot;Norton Commander was created independently by John Socha&quot; at the\ntop. As of time of writing of the book NC 1.0 is still working in DOS emulation\nmode in Windows and remains a useful tiny utility. Among things that were still\nmissing was top menu and related sub-menus (&quot;Left&quot; &quot;Files&quot; Commands&quot; &quot;Options&quot; &quot;Right&quot;)\nand NCD-tree (Alt-F10) option.</p>\n<p>The program was instantly noticed by computer press, although at the time Xtree\nwas the top choice of the reviewers. See for example:</p>\n<p>As we can see in 1987 the field was already pretty crowded with almost a dozen\nmajor players: 1Dir Plus, Direc-Tree, Pathminder, Keep Track Plus, Snap, Qdos II,\nand, the most important and powerful competitor, Xtree. But due to simplicity and\npower Norton Commander managed to get traction in this crowded field and\n<strong><em>i*</em></strong><strong>n\n1987-1991 m<strong><em></strong>*ore then a million copies\nwere sold.</em></strong></p>\n<p>It would be interesting to understand what was the extent to which existence\nof Norton Utilities influenced Norton Commander. As I mentioned before, Norton Utilities\nwere released four years earlier in 1982 and revenue from this package essentailayy\nfunded Norton Commander development. The first version contained 14 programs on\nthree floppy disks with the list price $80:</p>\n<p>As we can see it did not contain <strong>Norton Change Directory</strong>,\nthe program most close in ideology to NC and with the most interesting ideas. It\nwas written later by Brad Kingsbury. MCD can graphically displays the directory\ntree. It also can change, remove, rename or make directories. In was introduced\nonly in version 4.0 released in 1987 released one year before Norton Commander 2.0.\nBefore that Norton Utilities concentrated on recovery of lost files.</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-first-upgrade-nc-2-0-1988\">The first upgrade: NC 2.0 (1988)</h2>\n<p>Version 2 of Norton Commander was released in 1988, approximately two years after\nthe first version and the year after version 4.0 of Norton Utilities which was released\nin 1987. So it was influenced by achievements and codebase of Norton Utilities.</p>\n<p>Version 2.0 preserved now classic <em>look &amp; feel</em> of the first version, but\nsignificantly enhanced functionality It also benefited from several components of\nNorton Utilities 4.0 and first of all from code of NCD (Norton Change Directory)\nwritten by Brad Kingsbury (who later became Senior Vice President of Symantec).\nHe was the sole developer/designer/tester/manager for all versions of the Norton\nUtilities from 1985 to 1989.</p>\n<p>Among the major enhancements on NC 2.0 the following looks the most important:</p>\n<p>A built-in directory tree view was a very interesting and useful enhancement.\nIt introduced the concept of NCD view and treeinfo.ncd disk directory structure\ncaches. The concept was probably borrowed from the NCD.EXE (Norton Change\nDirectory) which was one of best components of Norton Utilities suit of programs\n(along with famous <em>file unerase</em> utility). Norton Change Directory was designed\nand written by Brad Kingsbury. It permits quick and very convenient navigation on\nthe directory tree by using pseudo-graphical representation of the tree similar\nto one used in windows File Explorer and introduced a quick search command on this\nrepresentation when by typing the first letters of the directory you get to the\nfirst directory with this prefix; Ctrl-Enter gets you to the next. The results of\nNCD operation were stored in a separate file in the root directory of each drive\n(files treeinfo.ncd ) which saved time for rescanning. The files were kept\nin sync with the directory content if file operations were performed via Norton\nCommander so total rescans were needed rarely. This elegant solution used to work\nreasonably fast even on floppy drives.</p>\n<p>The size of main executable almost doubled in this version and as a result EXE\nformat was used instead of COM. The main file had size 98K (uncompressed) and that\nreflected dramatic growth in functionality and complexity of interface. In many\nrespects this is a Norton Commander as we know it. Please note that swapper was\nrenamed to NCS.EXE; like version 1.0 NC2 can be used in old way without\nswapper as well by just executing nc.exe). In case of NC2 I do have a copy\nthe original distribution which was a single 360K floppy disk (thanks to Michael\nCronsten ) :</p>\n<pre><code> Volume in drive A is NC 2.01\n Volume Serial Number is FA00-0000\n\n Directory of a:\\\n\n1988-09-16  14:01                 2804 NCSMALL.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                98362 NC.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                31192 123VIEW.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                38614 DBVIEW.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                  577 READ.ME\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          DEMO\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          SAMPLES\n               5 File(s)         171549 bytes\n\n Directory of a:\\DEMO\n\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          .\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          ..\n1988-09-16  14:01                59250 NG-DEMO.EXE\n1988-09-16  14:01                50703 _FILE_0.DBD\n               2 File(s)         109953 bytes\n\n Directory of a:\\SAMPLES\n\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          .\n1988-09-16  14:01       &lt;DIR&gt;          ..\n1988-09-16  14:01                 1390 NC.EXT\n1988-09-16  14:01                 1051 NC.MNU\n1988-09-16  14:01                 6321 REALLIST.WK1\n1988-09-16  14:01                 3826 REALLIST.DBF\n               4 File(s)          12588 bytes\n\n     Total Files Listed:\n              11 File(s)         294090 bytes\n               6 Dir(s)           60416 bytes free</code></pre>\n<p>Format of the <strong>nc.ext</strong> file did not changed.\nThe macros that were supported are similar to version 1:</p>\n<p>The original <strong>nc.ext</strong> from SAMPLES directory\ncontained:</p>\n<pre><code>&#39;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#39;\n&#39; This is a sample NC.EXT file, which you can customize for your own    &#39;\n&#39; date files.                                &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39; Point &amp; Shoot refers to what happens when you move the cursor bar to    &#39;\n&#39; a file name and press the  key (or double-click with the    &#39;\n&#39; mouse).  You can set up the Commander, using this file, to start    &#39;\n&#39; a program and load the file under the cursor bar.            &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39; The apostrophe is used to add remarks (like this).  The Norton    &#39;\n&#39; Commander will ignore lines that start with an apostrophe.        &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39; Below are some typical examples of Point &amp; Shoot.            &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39; Note: if two extensions appear more than once (such as &#39;doc&#39; in this    &#39;\n&#39;    file) the first one will be used.                &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39;    You can have up to 25 extensions defined in this file.        &#39;\n&#39;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#39;\n\n&#39;\n&#39;dBase III -- program files\n&#39;\nprg:   dbase !\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Word Perfect\n&#39;\ndoc:    C:\\WP\\WP !.!\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Microsoft Word\n&#39;\ndoc:    C:\\WORD\\WORD !.!\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Norton Editor to load C source files\n&#39;\nc:    ne + !.!\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Norton Editor to load Assembly source files\n&#39;\nasm:    ne + !.!\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Delete all Norton Editor backup files in the current directory\n&#39;\n~??:    del *.~??\n\n&#39;\n&#39;Delete all the *.BAK files in the current directory\n&#39;\nbak:    del *.bak</code></pre>\n<p>Here is another example of <strong>nc.ext</strong> file, which\ndemonstrates the customarization users made ( it has interesting use of macros):</p>\n<pre><code>doc:    list !.!\ntxt:    list !.!\nhlp:    list !.!\nmon:    list !.!\nwks:    \\ver1a\\123\nwk?:    \\ver2_0\\123\nxtk:    !:xtalk !\ndbf:    !\\dbase !\n:    type !\n*:    rem no run file for this extension</code></pre>\n<p>Please note that line before the last provided an capability to read files\n<strong><em>without extensions</em></strong> like README.</p>\n<p>User Menu file at the SAMPLES directory of the original distribution contained:</p>\n<pre><code>&#39;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#39;\n&#39; This is an Example Menu file.  Modify it for you own needs.        &#39;\n&#39;                                    &#39;\n&#39; To create a blank line, hold down the  key and type 255 on the    &#39;\n&#39; numeric keypad, then let go of the  key and press .    &#39;\n&#39;-----------------------------------------------------------------------&#39;\nF1:     Microsoft Word\n               c:\n               cd \\word\\document\n               word\n               cd \\\n\nF2:     Word Perfect\n               c:\n               cd \\wp\n               wp\n               cd \\\n\n&#39;\n&#39; The following line starts with an ASCII 255 character.  This will appear\n&#39; as a blank line in the menu.\n&#39;\n\nD:     dBase III\n               c:\n               cd \\dbase\n               dbase\n               cd \\\n\nL:     Lotus 123\n               c:\n               cd \\123\n               123\n               cd \\\n\nN:     Norton Utilities\n               \\norton\\ni\n\nP:     Park Heads to shut down Computer\n               park</code></pre>\n<p>Help still remains just one page screen with the listing of major hot keys. Also\nthe string at the top &quot;Norton Commander was created independently by John Socha&quot;\nis preserved). But in all other respects version 2 is very close to implementing\nall the major features of OFM file manager.</p>\n<p>That was the version with which I got acquainted with Norton Commander. It was\nwidely used on first Russian clones of IBM PC: EC1840, Iskra and Robotron . They\nhave just two 5.25 floppy drives and no hard drive (Robotron has 5M harddrive).\nThe monitor was black and white.</p>\n<p></p>\n<p></p>\n<p>I used it for creating the first issues of Softpanorama bulletin, one floppy\nelectronic bulleting that I published from 1989 till 1996 (approximately the same\ntime span as official versions of Norton Commanders ;-). Actually I switched to\nNorton Commander from Xtree, which I used for about a year. Old issues contain a\nlot of interesting historical information and some adds-on to Norton commander.\nThey are available from this site for\nfree download (texts are in Russian, but most programs use English).</p>\n<p>NC 2.0 got rave review. In his influential InfoWorld review John Walkenbach called\nit &quot;near perfect&quot;, (Walkenbach J. Norton Commander Version 2.0: Near-perfect DOS\nshell emerges as market&#39;s best. (software review) InfoWorld, September 12, 1988,\n63-65.).</p>\n<p>It was often used as a launch pad for\nNorton Utilities,\na best-selling package of disk and file tools which was similar to classic Unix\nutilities (find -- FF.exe, fa -- file attributes, etc): it was relatively easy to\nadd all the necessary programs to the user menu. Also Norton Editor was better then\nthe internal editor in NC 2.0 it was often used as the external editor. BTW Norton\nUtilities 4.5 which included famous Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) were released the same\nyear (1988) as NC 2.0. It was shipped with demo version of Norton Commander.</p>\n<p>Symantec never released those initial, written mostly by John Socha DOS versions\nof NC in public domain, despite the fact that they represent obvious historical\ninterest.</p>\n<p>In 1991 one of the participants of Softpanorama seminar, Leonid Obuhov (Kiev\nState University), disassembled NC 2.0 and reconstructed library of functions that\nJohn Socha used. His research was published in\n<a href=\"http://www.softpanorama.org/Bulletin/Contents/contents041.txt\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Softpanorama, Vol 4, No.1 (Jan. 1996).</a></p>\n<p>Also Dmitry Gurtyak independently\ncreated a much faster than in original NCD algorithm of creating directory catalogs\n(files treeinfo.ncd ). The source of his Pascal program\nsdir is available from this\nsite.</p>\n<h2 id=\"the-most-popular-version-of-norton-commander-ever-created-nc-3-0\">The most popular version of Norton Commander ever created: NC 3.0 (1989)</h2>\n<p>\nNorton Commander 3.0 (NC 3.0) was landmark version as it was the last version developed\nby John Socha. It was released in 1989, one year before the company was sold to\nSymantec and John Socha left the company. At this point\n<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldudinyak/?trk=public-profile-join-page\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Linda Dudinyak</a> was\nthe software architect for this line of product (she is credited for writing\nCommander Mail (with Peter Bradeen, and J.Socha) and  several viewers (spreadsheet \nand wordprocessor viewers).</p>\n<p>It this point a typical PC was 386sx 20 MHz with 40MB drive and 2 or 4 MB memory,\nso resources consumed by NC were not critical.</p>\n<p>It also has elements borrowed from Brad Kingsbury development of Norton Utilities\n4.5 released in 1988. Actually career of Brad Kingsbury in the area of file managers\nand related utilities (ncd, filefind, etc) were longer then John Socha as he stayed\nfor another 6 years as Chief Technologist and after some years at McAfee and\nBrightmail re-jointed Symantec in 2004 as a vice president.\nAs of 2012 he still is with Symantec.</p>\n<p>As you can see from original 1989 advertisement of the left it  was\nadvertised\nas a better DOS shell, not only file manager. The price was rather high: it was sold for $149, while\nthe upgrade from version 2.0 for $49. It was really more then file manager -- it was an impressive\ngraphical shell disguised as pure file manager. And &quot;poor man IDE&quot;.</p>\n<p>This version proved that John Socha  approach to creation of &quot;Visual DOS\nshell&quot; and invented interface really have staying power. Program was remarkably\nsuccessful commercially. The release was also extremely reliable. As John Socha\nrecollected in 2006:</p>\n<blockquote><p>&quot;... The Norton Commander 3.0, the last version I wrote, survived for two\nyears without a single maintenance release. &quot;</p></blockquote>\n<p>NC3.0 probably represents the peak of the popularity of the Norton Commander\nline, the swan song of the old NC team.  Program generated a lot of positive\nreviews In his review in December 11, 1989 issue of Computerworld Michael J. Miller\nwrote:</p>\n<blockquote><p>Norton Commander users who upgrade to release 3.0 won&#39;t notice a drastic\nchange at first. The interface remains the same; screen split vertically, with\neach half showing you a list of your files and directories on the disk. (Typically\nthe screens show a floppy disk on the left and your hard disk on the right.)\nThis makes it easy to see what&#39;s on each disk, and to copy, move, or back up\nfiles accordingly.</p>\n<p>One new capability is the capability to show a tree view on one side of the\nscreen and the files within the selected subdirectories on the other side, making\nit look more like Xtree.</p>\n<p>...Commander has all the basic file management features, plus an addition\nI really like -- the capability to compare directories and see if they are identical.\nThis view also has capability to change file attributes and set filter on your\ndirectories.</p>\n<p>As in Xtree Pro Gold, you can set up an applications menu ( a feature the\nCommander has in the previous version); have the program automatically start\napplication based on a particular file extension; and edit files using a limited,\nbuilt-in editor or an external editor of your choice.</p>\n<p>Perhaps the most important new feature is a lot more viewers,  and a\nquick-view feature that automatically shows the content of each file as you\nmove through a file list.</p>\n<p>...For simple viewing, copying, renaming, and deleting of files, this is\nthe program I use most of the time.</p></blockquote>\n<p>As I mentioned before, Peter Norton sold the company to Symantec for $70 million\nin 1990. Initially the merger was hugely successful: Peter Norton products sales\nincreased dramatically and Symantec posted record yearly revenues. By 1992 Symantec\nbecame known primarily as a utility company, thanks to the increased success of\nPeter Norton line of products due to better marketing. But they proved to be not\nready to the changes introduced by Microsoft in 1995 with Windows 95 and almost\ncompletely lost their market share, including market for Norton Commander and large part\nof the market for Norton Utilities. But we will talk about this later.</p>\n<p>Version 3.0 was a really impressive improvement over the version 2 and it extended\nthe functionality of NC2 in many non-trivial ways. Due to the size of main module\n(ncmain.exe became 139K) swapping commander\nout of memory became standard mode of operation for users, instead of optional.\nHere is what we can learn from help about the team who created this amazing product:</p>\n<blockquote><p>The Norton Commander, Version 3.0\nCopyright (C) 1986-1989 by Peter Norton Computing, Inc.\nOctober 23, 1989, Created by John Socha\nHelp-&gt;About:\nThe Norton Commander, like any other great program, was\nwritten by a team of dedicated individuals:\nThe main program and Commander Link -- designed and written\nby John Socha\nCommander Mail -- Peter Bradeen, Linda Dudinyak, and J.\nSocha\nThe file viewers were written by several people, with J. Socha\non the side-lines:\nDatabase viewers -- Keith Ermel\nSpreadsheet viewers -- Linda Dudinyak\nWordprocessor viewers -- Linda Dudinyak\nPCX viewer -- Brian Yoder\nAnd finally, the on-line help was written by John Socha</p></blockquote>\n<p>Version 3.0 introduced many features which soon became a trademark of all OFM\nmanagers. Among them:</p>\n<p>The total product distribution still fits on a single 1.44M floppy. The archive\nthat I have contains 40 files but some like <strong>arcview.exe</strong>were added later (see below). The list below represent a customized version\nthat was typically used instead of standard:</p>\n<blockquote><pre><code>10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,464 123VIEW.EXE\n05/28/1992 04:22 PM 4,096 ARCVIEW.CFG\n11/21/1992 01:54 AM 30,048 ARCVIEW.EXE\n01/12/1995 02:55 PM 465 ARCVIEW.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 342 CHKMAIL.BAT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 61,026 DBVIEW.EXE\n10/19/1993 09:25 PM 10,946 HAVIEW.EXE\n01/17/1992 12:01 PM 9,955 ICONVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 1,312 INREAD.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,538 INSTALL.EXE\n12/11/1991 08:50 PM 8,094 LIBVIEW.EXE\n11/27/1991 12:32 PM 13 MCI.ATT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 103,396 MCI.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 27,050 MCI.HLP\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 71,272 MCIDRIVR.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 3,104 NC.EXE\n03/20/1995 10:03 PM 430 NC.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 45,727 NC.HLP\n04/09/1995 08:31 PM 476 NC.INI\n10/03/2002 12:43 PM 82 NC.MNU\n10/17/1991 02:56 PM 139,280 NCMAIN.EXE\n04/06/1991 01:58 AM 37,216 NCOLOUR.EXE\n07/15/1988 02:00 PM 2,816 NCSMALL.EXE\n05/30/1991 04:49 PM 524 NCVIEW.EXE\n03/20/1995 09:56 PM 379 NCVIEW.EXT\n01/29/1990 01:12 PM 32,384 NE.COM\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 62,596 PARAVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 46,094 PCXVIEW.EXE\n04/27/1993 11:55 AM 51,226 PVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 67,966 RBVIEW.EXE\n11/11/1991 10:20 AM 974 READ.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 63,492 REFVIEW.EXE\n10/16/1988 04:50 PM 79,079 RTDEMO2.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 4,480 SER-TEST.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 9,564 SERIAL.TXT\n06/08/1991 02:09 PM 13,161 UBL_VIEW.EXE\n01/04/1991 02:07 PM 48,272 WPVIEW.EXE\n12/31/1991 06:38 PM 31,273 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n41 File(s) 1,366,006 bytes</code></pre></blockquote>\n<pre><code>10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,464 123VIEW.EXE\n05/28/1992 04:22 PM 4,096 ARCVIEW.CFG\n11/21/1992 01:54 AM 30,048 ARCVIEW.EXE\n01/12/1995 02:55 PM 465 ARCVIEW.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 342 CHKMAIL.BAT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 61,026 DBVIEW.EXE\n10/19/1993 09:25 PM 10,946 HAVIEW.EXE\n01/17/1992 12:01 PM 9,955 ICONVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 1,312 INREAD.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,538 INSTALL.EXE\n12/11/1991 08:50 PM 8,094 LIBVIEW.EXE\n11/27/1991 12:32 PM 13 MCI.ATT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 103,396 MCI.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 27,050 MCI.HLP\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 71,272 MCIDRIVR.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 3,104 NC.EXE\n03/20/1995 10:03 PM 430 NC.EXT\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 45,727 NC.HLP\n04/09/1995 08:31 PM 476 NC.INI\n10/03/2002 12:43 PM 82 NC.MNU\n10/17/1991 02:56 PM 139,280 NCMAIN.EXE\n04/06/1991 01:58 AM 37,216 NCOLOUR.EXE\n07/15/1988 02:00 PM 2,816 NCSMALL.EXE\n05/30/1991 04:49 PM 524 NCVIEW.EXE\n03/20/1995 09:56 PM 379 NCVIEW.EXT\n01/29/1990 01:12 PM 32,384 NE.COM\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 62,596 PARAVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 46,094 PCXVIEW.EXE\n04/27/1993 11:55 AM 51,226 PVIEW.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 67,966 RBVIEW.EXE\n11/11/1991 10:20 AM 974 READ.ME\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 63,492 REFVIEW.EXE\n10/16/1988 04:50 PM 79,079 RTDEMO2.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 4,480 SER-TEST.EXE\n10/23/1989 03:00 PM 9,564 SERIAL.TXT\n06/08/1991 02:09 PM 13,161 UBL_VIEW.EXE\n01/04/1991 02:07 PM 48,272 WPVIEW.EXE\n12/31/1991 06:38 PM 31,273 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n41 File(s) 1,366,006 bytes</code></pre>\n<p>Due to larger size in Eastern Europe all executables of NC 3.0 were usually packed\nwith <strong>diet.exe</strong> or similar compression utility\nto save space (see below discussion of packing of executables in NC. 4.0). Here\nis the info about efficiency of different utilities for packing executables translated\nfrom the article\n<a href=\"http://solidstate.karelia.ru/~yura/pyldin/yura/tst3_exe.htm\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Norton Commander\n3.0 - Test of executable compressors</a></p>\n<p><strong>nc.exe should not\nbe packed</strong></p>\n<p>The idea of viewers have led to the first attempts to extend NC. Many programmers\nindependently started to add various viewers and even fix problems in existing viewers\nwith some binary patches. The most common trick was to replace the rarely used 123\nspreadsheets viewer (123VIEW.EXE) with something more useful, usually Zip archive\nviewer and change the extension it was associated with using a binary patch. That&#39;s\nhow the first archive viewers for OFMs were created. The last time I checked some\nof them were still available from file archives on the Internet:</p>\n<blockquote><div class=\"table-wrap\"><table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/freedownload/DOS/k/37/ncpatch.zip\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">ncpatch.zip</a></td><td>1773</td><td>03-04-92</td><td>-=FREE=- From Russia. Patch for Norton Commander v3.0.</td></tr><tr><td><a href=\"http://www.filelibrary.com:8080/cgi-bin/freedownload/DOS/k/37/ncpatchz.zip\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">ncpatchz.zip</a></td><td>1622</td><td>06-21-92</td><td>Patch Norton Commander 3.0 to view ZIP files.</td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote>\n<p>Due to its capabilities and very high quality of programming version 3.0 was\na huge success and it dominated the field of DOS file managers probably until 1993.\nOnly after Volkov Commander was released (Volkov Commander was first published in\nthe Softpanorama Bulletin in the December</p>\n<ol start=\"1992\"><li><p>its popularity started to fade, as VC was more powerful and at the same time</p><p>more compact program, the real masterpiece of assembler language programming. We\nwill discuss it later in the chapter.</p></li></ol>\n<p>Among the most successful Norton Commander early plug-ins I would like to mention\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiew\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Hiew</a> (short for Hacker&#39;s view) is\na popular console hex viewer, editor and disassember written by Eugene Suslikov.\nMost of early versions were published in and distributed by Softpanorama bulletin.\nThe program is particularly useful for binary patching. Later it became a useful\ntool for analyzing early computer viruses.</p>\n<p>After 1992 due to creation of more powerful clones and growth of popularity of\nother types of file managers (primarily Xtree Gold), the popularity of Norton Commander\nstated to fade.</p>\n<p>The other reason was that after acquisition Symantec lost some developers (including\nJohn Socha) and failed to produce a new version within a reasonable interval (let&#39;s\nassume that the reasonable internal in this case was approximately two years ).\nThat means that\ncompetitors received unique capability to imitate and extend the Norton Commander\ncapabilities in their products.</p>\n<p>Actually Symantec\nserved as the graveyard for many interesting DOS programs besides Norton Commander.\nWith the growing popularity of Windows it killed all major DOS projects without\nunderstanding their potential in a new environment or their potential value in Unix\nmarket. Among other interesting products killed were XTree, PC utilities and Norton\nUtilities (in the latter case only the name survived, but content did not: since\n2001 Norton Utilities for Windows were just a pale shadow of its former self)</p>\n<p>Here is one review from this now ancient\nperiod taken from\n<a href=\"http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13117777.200.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">issue 1777 of\nNew Scientist magazine,</a> 13 July 1991, page 52:</p>\n<blockquote><p>Most users of personal computers will have heard of Peter Norton. He was\nthe man who cooked up a set of programs, known as the Utilities. Anyone who\nhas inadvertently deleted a life&#39;s work of text or data from a hard disc will\nthink immediately of suicide: for them Norton&#39;s Utilities are a life-saver as\nthey can retrieve that precious lost data. They also make the horrid MS-DOS\noperating system, which IBM to its everlasting shame chose for the personal\ncomputer, go at least some of the way towards accommodating the real needs of\nreal people. (&#39;Forgiveness is all&#39;, New Scientist, 14 October 1989).</p>\n<p>Norton&#39;s company in Santa Monica went on to produce related program packages\nthat humanise DOS even further. Norton Commander helps personal computer users\nto bring order to the muddle of files that will always accumulate on a hard\ndisc. It lists and sorts the files that are there, giving a quick view of the\ncontents before deletion. Norton Backup helps users to make safety copies of\nselected files, and checks that the copies are indeed safe.</p>\n<p>... ... ...</p>\n<p>The latest version of Utilities has a &#39;trashcan&#39; - a hidden store that holds\nfiles intact for a week after they have been deleted. If in that time you change\nyour mind and want to save a file, it can easily be retrieved. After that Utilities\ncan only do its best to retrieve whatever is left of a deleted file after the\npersonal computer has written new data over the disc space previously allocated\nto it.</p>\n<p>The Utilities even make formatting a disc safe. They impose a Safe Format\nroutine on the personal computer instead of the steamroller Format program that\ncomes with MS-DOS. To test it I saved a large file onto a floppy disc and reformatted\nit using Safe Format. The file then disappeared. I used Norton&#39;s Unformat and\nit reappeared. Utilities also has an improved facility to search large discs\nfor text lost in forgotten files.</p>\n<p>Norton programs are easy to install. The computer copies them from the master\nfloppy disc (Norton supplies both standard sizes), prompting the user from the\nscreen. But here I found some irritating faults. I do hope this does not mean\nthat the rapid growth of Peter Norton Computing Inc and its recent merger with\nthe software publisher Symantec has made Norton&#39;s ever-expanding team of programmers\ncareless.</p>\n<p>Backup is more awkward to install than the rest as its myriads of options\nflash past. It performs a useful test backup routine, but perplexingly leaves\nthe disc drive light on while asking for discs to be swapped. Personal computer\nusers are always warned not to swap discs while the light is on.</p>\n<p>The new Commander seems not to recognise the existence of any previous version\nalready installed. This might cause problems. Confusingly it then throws up\na red error message about a menu file that is missing only because it has not\nyet been created. Also it seems to insist on using a mouse if one is attached\nto the personal computer for other purposes, even if the operator would rather\nkey in commands. The mouse puts a red cursor slap in the middle of the screen,\nuntil the operator moves the mouse to move the cursor.</p>\n<p>The installations for all the programs automatically modify the personal\ncomputer&#39;s set-up files (Autoexec. Bat and Config. Sys) but Backup erroneously\nadded its path instruction twice when installed over a previous version.</p>\n<p><strong><em>The new Utilities uses an instruction called\nImage to save a snapshot of the disc&#39;s contents in case it is accidentally reformatted.</em></strong>The old version used a similar instruction called FR/Save. When\nsomeone who is using the old version buys the new one and installs it, the new\nUtilities does not delete the old instruction. As stray instructions will give\nerror messages on screen, this can be very disconcerting to all but the most\ncomputer-literate user. Sorting out silly problems like this can be time-consuming.</p></blockquote>\n<p>You still can find &quot;how to&quot; articles about NC3 on the Web. Here is one such example:\n<a href=\"http://www.00100.dk/knowwareglobal/optimal/optimal_nc1.htm\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Get the most\nout of your PC: Norton Commander</a>:</p>\n<blockquote><p>The section differs from the others in that I will walk you through the functions\nI use the most. So it is a bit like a course in using NC.</p>\n<p>This section is here because many people have purchased and use this excellent\nprogram, originally written by John Socha. The description mainly relates to\nthe English-language version 3.0.</p>\n<p>As time goes by, you cram a lot of files onto your hard disk, and these are\nspread around in many different directories. I have always used Norton Commander\nto manage files and directories. If you dont have this program, Im afraid\nthat you wont benefit much from this section. However, bits here and there\nmight interest you enough to make you consider buying the program. You may well\nask (with good reason) why I devote so much space to a program that doesnt\ncome with DOS.</p>\n<p>There are many similar programs, including Dosshell, PCTools and File Manager\nin Windows. I personally find NC the easiest, fastest and smartest.</p>\n<p>NC was developed many years ago to ease the management of files and directories.\nYou <em>can</em> use a mouse in NC but I will only describe the use of the keyboard.</p>\n<p>Start NC by typing NC at the DOS prompt, and exit by pressing\nF10. Tab toggles between\nthe two windows. Press Esc if you regret doing\nsomething; if you open a window and select a function that you dont want, press\nEsc. The screen is split into two windows, as if\nyou had two simultaneous DOS prompts, a <em>very intelligent</em> and handy function,\nespecially when copying and moving files.</p>\n<p>At the top of each window is the paths of the two directories shown by the\nleft and right windows. I call the horizontal marker the &quot;bar.&quot; The bar marks\na drive, a directory or a file. If the current directory is empty, the bar will\nbe at the top of the screen.</p>\n<p>Both windows show files and directories in the manner you stipulate via the\npull-down menus. Try pressing F9 and\nEnter or the down arrow.</p>\n<p>This activates the pull-down menus. You can move around in a window by using\nthe up and down keyboard arrows, and you move to a new window using the right\nor left keyboard arrows. Press Esc twice to return.</p>\n<p>The bottom of the screen shows the actions of the different function keys.\nTry holding down Alt and you will see what\nAlt + a function key will do.</p>\n<h6 id=\"configuration\">Configuration</h6>\n<p>Lets start by configuring your screen and program to resemble mine while\nyou read this. You can always change it later. In the <em>options</em> menu, select\n<em>configuration</em>. In each dialogue box, you select with the space bar to\nactivate a point and move with the arrow keys, Tab\nor Enter. Here are my recommendations.</p>\n<p><em>Screen blank delay</em>means that the screen goes (almost) blank after a\ncertain period of time if you havent touched the keyboard. This protects your\nscreen. Mine is set at three minutes, but you make your own choice.</p>\n<p><em>Show hidden files</em>: blank (until you are familiar with NC, I recommend\nyou use a setup that doesnt show hidden files). <em>Ins Moves down</em> means\nthat pressing the Insert key moves the bar one step down. <em>Auto change directory</em>means that if you have a directory tree in the left window and the corresponding\nfiles of a marked directory in the right window, the files of the new directory\nwill be shown each time you change directory in the left window. Under other\noptions, select: <em>Menu bar always visible</em> blank. Menu bar always visible\nmeans that the top bar for pull-down menus is always visible. <em>Auto save setup</em>\nx, means this configuration is saved when you exit NC. End with\nOK just keep pressing Enter\nuntil you reach OK.</p>\n<p>Still under Options (F9\nand either arrow-down or\nEnter). The selections toggle between on and off each time theyre chosen.\nYou should have the following active, i.e. showing a small check mark next to\nthem, which you do by pressing Enter or the emphasized\nletter. Unfortunately, you can only change one thing at a time.</p>\n<p><em>Path prompt</em> The DOS directory path: The DOS prompt at the bottom of\nthe screen shows the current directory.\n<em>Key bar</em> The function keys are shown at the very bottom of the screen.</p>\n<p>F9, and Enter.\nThe menu for the left and right window is split into three sections and within\neach frame you can choose from one of the following:</p>\n<p><strong>Top Section</strong> Shows the information you choose to see in the window\n<em>Brief</em>: file names only.\n<em>Full</em>: file names, sizes, dates and times.\n<em>Info:</em> information on the current disk, space used and available.\n<em>Tree</em> directory diagram: directory tree in this window and files in\nthe other.\n<strong>Middle Section</strong> sort order for files</p>\n<p>The different options are self-explanatory. Normally, I have <em>Name</em>\nactivated but if, for example, you change something in a program thats made\nup of several files and you want to see in which file the program saves certain\nthings, the most convenient way is to sort by <em>Time</em> and the changed file\nwill appear at the top of the list. If you need to view many files with the\nsame extension, then select <em>Extension</em>.</p>\n<p><strong>Bottom Section</strong> I never use this.</p>\n<p>You can select either by moving with the arrow keys and then pressing\nEnter or by typing the capitalized letter. Try\nselecting <em>Brief</em>; the window shows the current directory with files, though\nwith names only. Do the same with the other window, by pressing\nTab, F9 and selecting\nBrief. If you press F9 and regret it, press\nEsc. Move the bar up and down with the arrow keys.\nNotice that at the bottom of the small frame you get full information about\nthe file or directory that the bar is resting upon.. Directories are written\nin capital letters and files are written with lowercase letters. Now select\n<em>Full</em> for both windows (F9,\nEnter, Full,), which\nshows the files with name, size, date and time. This is my preference; you may\nhave a different opinion.</p></blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"the-first-flip-flop-nc-4-0-1992\">The first flip-flop: NC 4.0 (1992)</h2>\n<p>Acquisition by Symantec created some problems in development. Symantec brass\nmade a bet on commercial success of Microsoft Windows and decided that DOS-style\nproducts has no future. People were reassigned accordingly. While part about Microsoft Windows success was right, part\nabout loss of value of DOS products was wrong and naive. In any case, the key PNC\nresources had been diverted.  this behaviour &quot;mad rush for cash cows&quot;) was actually pretty\ntypical for software companies and left  many promising products in category which is called\n&quot;abandonware&quot;.</p>\n<p>Additional programmers for development for Windows\nplatform were hired to develop a File Manager and Program Manager released as Norton\nDesktop for Windows.</p>\n<p>All this resulted in a pause in releases of Norton Commander and for three years\ncompetitors managed to eat a significant part of  NC market share.</p>\n<p>Version 4.0 of NC was released only in 1992 (with three years interval from NC3.0).\nHere is the press release</p>\n<pre><code>    Norton Commander 4.0 is the Fastest and Easiest Way to\n    Manage, View, Compress and Uncompress Files</code></pre>\n<pre><code>    Key Features Overview:\n    -- File compression for the most popular formats\n    -- Over 50 viewers for application, graphics and compressed files\n    -- High-speed file and directory transfer from laptop to desktop\n       and vice versa\n    -- Send faxes, telexes and paper mail with Commander Mail\n    -- All file, copy, move and delete dialog boxes include\n       subdirectories\n    -- Support for 300 percent larger directories\n    -- Available now -- $99 SRP</code></pre>\n<blockquote><p>CUPERTINO, Calif., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced Norton Commander 4.0, the world&#39;s best- selling DOS shell that provides the fastest and easiest way to manage, view, compress and uncompress files. Norton Commander 4.0 brings significantly greater speed and convenience to file management, file viewing, application launching, electronic mail and PC-to-PC file transfer. No other comprehensive DOS file management software is as fast, as easy-to-use and as small in memory and disk space requirements as Norton Commander 4.0.\nNorton Commander increases a user&#39;s productivity by providing immediate access to and a complete view of directories and their contents. One keystroke or mouse click can launch applications, view, copy, move and delete files and directories.</p>\n<p>Commander lets the user view over 50 different kinds of files, including DOS and Windows application files, graphic files and compressed files. Commander Link, with new file-only transfer capability, transfers files between two PCs via both serial and parallel connector cables.\n&quot;The fourth generation Commander is not only fast and lean, making it ideal for portables, but it&#39;s also powerful, versatile and feature- rich,&quot; said Grant Johnson, Symantec&#39;s business unit director for the Peter Norton Group. &quot;It contains improvements with recommendations and suggestions from users all over the world. The Norton Commander 4.0 transforms the DOS environment into one that is easily managed by the everyday user, yet robust enough for the advanced user.&quot;</p>\n<p><strong>New Features</strong></p>\n<ul><li><strong>File Compression in the World&#39;s Most Popular Formats.</strong> Norton Commander lets the user copy, move and delete to and from compressed files. Commander has built in support for PKZIP 2.04x, and seamless external support for ARJ, ARC, PAK, LHARC and ZOO. With simple modifications, additional external compression programs can also be supported.</li><li><strong>Over 30 New File Viewers Added.</strong> Norton Commander 4.0 users can view more than 50 files formats including Q&amp;A, Paradox 3.5, Lotus 1-2-3.x, Excel 3.x, MS Word for Windows 1.x and 2.x and more. In addition to PCX, several new graphical viewers including GIF, BMP, TIFF and ICO have been added.</li><li><strong>Enhanced Commander Link.</strong> The addition of parallel link support in Commander Link lets users apply the high-speed parallel port to transfer files and directories from their laptop to their desktop PC and vice versa. &quot;New File&quot; transfer capability saves times by only transferring new files, A new cloning feature allows Commander to easily duplicate itself over a serial connection.</li><li><strong>Commander Mail Enhancements.</strong> Commander Mail lets MCI Mail users send faxes, telexes and paper mail to recipients who do not need to be MCI Mail subscribers. Commander Mail automatically files e-mail messages and store frequently used fax numbers and e-mail ID numbers in an address book.</li><li><p><strong>Quick View.</strong> Quick View lets users browse through a list of files in one panel while displaying the contents of any highlighted file in the other panel. Without first loading the parent applications, the new Quick View feature allows the user to view spreadsheet, database, graphics, word processing or compressed files in one keystroke or mouse click. When a directory is highlighted, Quick View will show the total number of the files and subdirectories of that directory and the amount of space used.</p><p>Quick View is available from both the Left and Right menus. The Zoom feature lets the user zoom a half-screen file view to full screen and back again with a single keystroke.</p></li></ul>\n<p><strong>Additional Features</strong></p>\n<p>Directories can now be three times larger than before, containing more than 1,600 files per directory. For greater efficiency and convenience, all file copy, move and delete dialog boxes have an &quot;include subdirectories&quot; check box. This allows the user to include both directories and subdirectories with all file operations.</p>\n<p>A more proficient Editor supports block operations and includes printing capability, letting the user create and edit existing documents without leaving Commander. An enhanced Find/File capability lets the user search for text contained in a file. In can also copy, move and delete found files.</p>\n<p>In addition to allowing access to the DOS prompt at any time, Commander also provides a DOS history, recalling and displaying the last 15 DOS commands in a pop-up window for quick selection and re-running. Users can easily edit the command line and copy file names to it.</p>\n<p>The Norton Commander 4.0 is network compatible, allowing users to access and manage data over any PC compatible network. Commander also provides system information, making a hardware and memory information summary available from a menu option.</p>\n<p><strong>Pricing and Availability</strong></p>\n<p>Norton Commander 4.0 is available at a suggested retail price of $99. Upgrades to registered users of Norton Commander are available for $39, plus shipping and handling, and include a free copy of Norton Speedcache+, the fastest hard disk and CD-ROM cache for DOS and Windows.</p>\n<p>Norton Commander 4.0 requires DOS 3.1 or higher. It runs on IBM PC XT, AT, PS/2 and compatibles, requires 512K RAM, a serial or parallel cable for Commander Link, and an MCI Account for Commander Mail.</p>\n<p>Symantec Corporation develops, markets and supports a complete line of applications and system software products for IBM personal computers and compatibles, and Apple Macintosh computers. Founded in 1982, the company has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Information on the company and its products can be obtained by calling 800-441-7234 toll free, or 408-252-3570.</p>\n<p>-0- 6/21/93</p>\n<p>/NOTE TO EDITORS: Brand and product references herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders./</p>\n<p>/CONTACT: Ana Shannon, 310-449-4140, or Christiane Petite, 310-449-4141, both of Symantec Corporation; Rebecca Fuller of Wilson McHenry Company, 415-592-7600, for Symantec/\n(SYMC)</p></blockquote>\n<p>While it definitely made some progress, it was far less impressive as it was more\nresource intensive (uncompressed ncmain.exe for NC4.0 was over 200K). On plain vanilla DOS\nthis was larger then many DOS PCs can afford at the time (in other words it become bloatware). And\nin Europe, the key market for the product, it has difficulties in\ncompeting with free clones, such as Volkov Commander and DN both of which were released earlier. In\na way, it\nplayed catch-up...</p>\n<p>Unlike version 3.0 which was remarkably stable, the initial version was also\nsomewhat buggy.  Another problem was that on architectural level Symantec honchos  failed\nto understanding that the program can enrich not only primitive DOS shell\nand make command line operations (which are still were main way of Windows usage\ndue to huge inertia from DOS) much more palatable, but can be transformed in to GUI version of the program\nwhich can inherit associated market share of loyal users.</p>\n<p>I suspect that Symantec was almost always &quot;make money fast&quot; type of company, unable to\nthink strategically and due to this destroying most on their acquisitions. \nBut that&#39;s just a speculation. The hard fact was that NC 4.0 was squeezed by both free and\ncommercial competitors. The latter included XtreeGold and  PC Tools 6.0 which during those three year closed the\ngap in capabilities to zero and it was no longer flagship product it used to be.\nXTree Gold (released in 1989) developed a very strong following and was\ninnovative\nis several respects, first of all with its approach of &quot;history of everything&quot;.\nBoth companies were bought and subsequently destroyed by Symantec: in 1993, the XTree\nCompany was sold to Central Point Software, produced of PC Utilities, which was in\nturn acquired by Symantec in 1994. In 1995 production of XTree products was halted.</p>\n<p>DN and Volkov Commander greatly undermined attractiveness of NC4.0 in Europe and xUSSR\nregion (the USSR was dissolved in 1991). You simply can justify $99 price even\non the strength of brand name, when viable competitors are available for one\nthird/one forth of this sum.</p>\n<p>You can find multiple screenshots of NC4.0 at\n<a href=\"https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?tag=siu-container;thumbnail-view-selector\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Dinosaur Sightings DOS File Managers</a> by Greg Shultz (slides\n<a href=\"https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?seq=23&amp;tag=siu-container;thumbnail-view-selector\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">23</a> -<a href=\"https://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosaur-sightings-dos-file-managers/6351007?seq=29&amp;tag=content;siu-container#photopaging\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">29</a>).\nSome comments in the discussion are really interesting:</p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>tomk3212</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander.</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>There is a story from the mid-80&#39;s (probably apocryphal) that just about\nevery PC that was smuggled into the old Soviet Union had the Norton Commander\ninstalled on it as the file manager for DOS (export restrictions at that\ntime forbade directly selling PCs to the Iron Curtain countries). The folks\nusing these smuggled PCs thought that NC was part of the DOS operating system!\nNorton&#39;s support line in Europe had to field tons of calls from Eastern\nBloc countries and explain endlessly that this was a pirated version of\ntheir software &amp; if they wanted support thay had to pony up $$ to pay for\nit. Just goes to show just how darn popular NC was at that time. I used\nit for years....legally however...lol <strong>--[ This\nstory about tons of support calls from Eastern Block countries is definitely\nwrong; such calls were prohibitively expensive at the time, something like\n$1 per minute; also people were not stupid to call the vendor about pirated\nproduct <em>-- NNB</em>]</strong></p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>Cmd_Line_Dino</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>I too loved Norton Commander. Now I use its clone...</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>File Commander by Brian Havard is a 32-bit clone of Norton Commander\n<a href=\"http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html</a></p>\n<p>It is everything that NC was and so much more. I have used it since Windows\nNT and now use it on Win 7 64-bit.</p>\n<p>It&#39;s also available for several Unix-like OS-es.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>liljim</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>File managers,</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>I developed some expertise in using NCC, and the Microsoft shells. But\nI considered myself an expert at using XTree and XTreeGold.\n<strong><em>I liked them so much, I bought a dozen copies\non several occasions when I saw a bargain bin</em></strong>. The XTree\nfamily is a major reason I never ran Windows 3.10 or earlier versions. I\nsupported quite a few people who ran Win 3.11, but that was not my preference\neither. <strong>Win95 was the first serious challenge to\nmy use of XTree. I still wonder if I made the right choice back then too!</strong></p>\n<p>Good Memories, Thanks for the reminder.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>dpresley_50201</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>PC Tools&#39; PC Shell</em>, 16th Mar</p>\n<p>I used PC Tools 6.0 for almost everything related to file and disk management\nincluding PC Shell. I&#39;ve used NC, but PC Shell, IIRC, also had a dual pane\ndisplay, although one had to enable it in the settings, and it did everything\nI required of a file manager.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>specstuffe</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Dos file managers</em>, 16th Mar</p>\n<p>DOS is not dead! The critiqued managers were good but, there are some\nnewer managers to look at. <strong><em>Necromancer&#39;s DOS\nnavigator is modern up to date and blows away all the others. Another really\ngood one is Graphic Vision File Manager. Almost as good as the NDN.</em></strong></p>\n<p>DOS Navigator v640 Open Source Project is another good one. All these\nare available for download. KEEP DOS ALIVE!</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>valentin_ivan</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p>DOS Navigator, 28th Mar</p>\n<p>Yeap!</p>\n<p>Much better than the well-known Norton Commander!</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>NickNielsenUpdated</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander</em> - 16th Mar</p>\n<p>was the shizznitt!</p>\n<p>PCShell, the PCTools file manager was a close second.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>Cmd_Line_Dino</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p>*If you loved Norton Commander then get everything it was and more\ntoday,* 17th Mar</p>\n<p>File Commander by Brian Havard is a clone of Norton Commander. All the\nfeatures of Norton Commander and so much more. Started over 15 years ago\nand still being enhanced. The author responds to bug reports and feature\nrequests. I consider it one of my two indispensable apps.</p>\n<p><strong>Full disclosure</strong>: I am in no way connected to File Commander or\nthe developer. I am just a very happy user (for over 15 years).</p>\n<p>p.s. Give it a try and leave the primitive world of Windows Explorer</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>rgeiken</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>DOS File Managers</em>, 19th Mar</p>\n<p>One of my favorite file managers was XTree Gold. I<strong><em>used that frequently over the years. I also used the Microsoft file managers,\nbut most of the time it was XTree Gold. For me personally, that was really\nthe Gold Standard when I was using DOS up through Windows 3.1</em></strong></p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>firstaborean,</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander<strong></em>,</strong> 19th Mar</p>\n<p>I used Norton Commander from my MS-DOS 3.21 days onward, even with Windows\n95 and 98. Under Windows 98SE, I once used the NC file viewer and Randy&#39;s\nIcon Editor to change a Windows 3-style icon to one usable under Windows\nXP, which then was Microsoft&#39;s latest and greatest OS. NC opened the icon\nfile, and I saved the screen shot. Then I opened the screen shot under the\nIcon Editor and re-saved it as an icon file. Over the years, I used NC as\nan analytic and diagnostic tool, as well as a file manager. The only thing\nusable under Windows, these days, that&#39;s at all comparable is Power Desk.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>jtmccall</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>NC Ruled,</em> 19th Mar</p>\n<p>Loved my Norton Commander so much I continued to use it in a dos window\nunder Win &#39;95. I have never really gotten to like the Windows Explorer.\nNorton&#39;s two-pane format and all of the intuitive extras were simply well\ndesigned and provided all the functionality I needed. Add Norton Utilities\nto the mix and you were an IT god back in the day.</p></blockquote>\n<p><strong>info</strong></p>\n<blockquote><p><em>DOS file manager</em>, 19th Mar</p>\n<p>My favourite was the Norton Commander, which I was using until the company\ngave it up when Windows 98 was dominating the consumer PC OS market. I am\nstill using the follow-up software, nowadays known as Total Commander, mainly\nbecause of the two windows making it very simple to copy, move, look at\nand administer otherwise files as you like it. It is far more comfortable\nthan the Windows Explorer, which has not really changed since it was launched.</p></blockquote></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander.</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>There is a story from the mid-80&#39;s (probably apocryphal) that just about\nevery PC that was smuggled into the old Soviet Union had the Norton Commander\ninstalled on it as the file manager for DOS (export restrictions at that\ntime forbade directly selling PCs to the Iron Curtain countries). The folks\nusing these smuggled PCs thought that NC was part of the DOS operating system!\nNorton&#39;s support line in Europe had to field tons of calls from Eastern\nBloc countries and explain endlessly that this was a pirated version of\ntheir software &amp; if they wanted support thay had to pony up $$ to pay for\nit. Just goes to show just how darn popular NC was at that time. I used\nit for years....legally however...lol <strong>--[ This\nstory about tons of support calls from Eastern Block countries is definitely\nwrong; such calls were prohibitively expensive at the time, something like\n$1 per minute; also people were not stupid to call the vendor about pirated\nproduct <em>-- NNB</em>]</strong></p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>I too loved Norton Commander. Now I use its clone...</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>File Commander by Brian Havard is a 32-bit clone of Norton Commander\n<a href=\"http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html</a></p>\n<p>It is everything that NC was and so much more. I have used it since Windows\nNT and now use it on Win 7 64-bit.</p>\n<p>It&#39;s also available for several Unix-like OS-es.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>File managers,</em> 15th Mar</p>\n<p>I developed some expertise in using NCC, and the Microsoft shells. But\nI considered myself an expert at using XTree and XTreeGold.\n<strong><em>I liked them so much, I bought a dozen copies\non several occasions when I saw a bargain bin</em></strong>. The XTree\nfamily is a major reason I never ran Windows 3.10 or earlier versions. I\nsupported quite a few people who ran Win 3.11, but that was not my preference\neither. <strong>Win95 was the first serious challenge to\nmy use of XTree. I still wonder if I made the right choice back then too!</strong></p>\n<p>Good Memories, Thanks for the reminder.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>PC Tools&#39; PC Shell</em>, 16th Mar</p>\n<p>I used PC Tools 6.0 for almost everything related to file and disk management\nincluding PC Shell. I&#39;ve used NC, but PC Shell, IIRC, also had a dual pane\ndisplay, although one had to enable it in the settings, and it did everything\nI required of a file manager.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>Dos file managers</em>, 16th Mar</p>\n<p>DOS is not dead! The critiqued managers were good but, there are some\nnewer managers to look at. <strong><em>Necromancer&#39;s DOS\nnavigator is modern up to date and blows away all the others. Another really\ngood one is Graphic Vision File Manager. Almost as good as the NDN.</em></strong></p>\n<p>DOS Navigator v640 Open Source Project is another good one. All these\nare available for download. KEEP DOS ALIVE!</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>DOS Navigator, 28th Mar</p>\n<p>Yeap!</p>\n<p>Much better than the well-known Norton Commander!</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander</em> - 16th Mar</p>\n<p>was the shizznitt!</p>\n<p>PCShell, the PCTools file manager was a close second.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>*If you loved Norton Commander then get everything it was and more\ntoday,* 17th Mar</p>\n<p>File Commander by Brian Havard is a clone of Norton Commander. All the\nfeatures of Norton Commander and so much more. Started over 15 years ago\nand still being enhanced. The author responds to bug reports and feature\nrequests. I consider it one of my two indispensable apps.</p>\n<p><strong>Full disclosure</strong>: I am in no way connected to File Commander or\nthe developer. I am just a very happy user (for over 15 years).</p>\n<p>p.s. Give it a try and leave the primitive world of Windows Explorer</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>DOS File Managers</em>, 19th Mar</p>\n<p>One of my favorite file managers was XTree Gold. I<strong><em>used that frequently over the years. I also used the Microsoft file managers,\nbut most of the time it was XTree Gold. For me personally, that was really\nthe Gold Standard when I was using DOS up through Windows 3.1</em></strong></p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>Norton Commander<strong></em>,</strong> 19th Mar</p>\n<p>I used Norton Commander from my MS-DOS 3.21 days onward, even with Windows\n95 and 98. Under Windows 98SE, I once used the NC file viewer and Randy&#39;s\nIcon Editor to change a Windows 3-style icon to one usable under Windows\nXP, which then was Microsoft&#39;s latest and greatest OS. NC opened the icon\nfile, and I saved the screen shot. Then I opened the screen shot under the\nIcon Editor and re-saved it as an icon file. Over the years, I used NC as\nan analytic and diagnostic tool, as well as a file manager. The only thing\nusable under Windows, these days, that&#39;s at all comparable is Power Desk.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>NC Ruled,</em> 19th Mar</p>\n<p>Loved my Norton Commander so much I continued to use it in a dos window\nunder Win &#39;95. I have never really gotten to like the Windows Explorer.\nNorton&#39;s two-pane format and all of the intuitive extras were simply well\ndesigned and provided all the functionality I needed. Add Norton Utilities\nto the mix and you were an IT god back in the day.</p></blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><em>DOS file manager</em>, 19th Mar</p>\n<p>My favourite was the Norton Commander, which I was using until the company\ngave it up when Windows 98 was dominating the consumer PC OS market. I am\nstill using the follow-up software, nowadays known as Total Commander, mainly\nbecause of the two windows making it very simple to copy, move, look at\nand administer otherwise files as you like it. It is far more comfortable\nthan the Windows Explorer, which has not really changed since it was launched.</p></blockquote>\n<p>Also the absence of the original architect were quite evident. On the\nother side Windows 3.1 already became an instant success and most commercial application\ndevelopment moved to a new platform. GUI based file manager was included with Windows\n3.1 and was good enough for many users. Paradoxically while NC 4.0 was really too heavy-weight for\n&quot;native&quot; DOS it was  OK for emulators and thus was more attractive in Windows 3.1 then in DOS.</p>\n<p>All of those factors made the product much less commercially successful. Also it was time to move to 32-bit API,\nbut the developers mentality was still stuck in DOS world.</p>\n<p>I personally consider NC 4.0 to be a mediocre product which failed to move the\nfranchise to a hew, unachievable to competitors, height like was the case with versions\n2 and 3. The phase &quot;too little too late&quot; looks perfectly applicable. I switched\nfrom NC 4.0 to Volkov Commander so NC 3.0 was the last product in Norton line about\nwhich I have hands-on experience.</p>\n<p>One interesting innovation (which actually appeared in clones first)  was that NC 4.0 integrated zip-archive viewer into the distribution and treated zip archives\nas folders, but functionality was limited to viewing of the content of the archive\n-- it did not treated archive like folders with all operations available.</p>\n<p>The distribution contained 62 files and occupied 2,237,459 bytes. Here is the\ncontent of the distribution:</p>\n<pre><code>05/10/1993  10:46 AM       64,328 123VIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 4372ANSI.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 8502ANSI.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 ANSI2437.SET\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          255 ANSI2850.SET\n03/09/1993  09:56 AM        1,487 ARCVIEW.CFG\n05/07/1993  11:07 AM       87,648 ARCVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       54,805 BITMAP.EXE\n04/23/1992  10:51 AM       17,939 CHIVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       38,501 CLP2DIB.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        8,073 CMPSRV.SCX\n07/02/1993  03:44 PM           71 COMPUSER.SYS\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          790 DATEX.P\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       59,348 DBVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       49,957 DRAW2WMF.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       64,085 DRW2WMF.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        8,036 GENIE.SCX\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       37,925 ICO2DIB.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       52,750 INSTALL.EXE\n04/13/1993  04:03 PM           83 LGAVIEW.CFG\n05/13/2001  01:13 AM       38,992 LGAVIEW.EXE\n11/24/2007  08:58 AM            0 manifest\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       27,269 MSP2DIB.EXE\n07/20/1993  04:27 PM        2,225 NC.CFG\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        3,358 NC.EXE\n12/24/1993  06:55 AM          146 NC.EXT\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       55,245 NC.HLP\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM          766 NC.ICO\n11/23/2007  11:07 PM          774 NC.INI\n12/07/1994  11:08 AM          866 NC.MNU\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       63,264 NCEDIT.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM      212,777 NCMAIN.EXE\n02/19/1996  07:07 AM            5 NCTMP.TMP\n12/22/1992  09:59 AM          340 NCVIEW.CFG\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       93,696 NCZIP.EXE\n01/14/1993  04:43 PM       20,737 NE.COM\n11/28/1990  01:00 PM       65,814 NE.EXE\n06/22/1993  04:13 PM          425 NE.INI\n05/27/1993  07:00 AM      200,451 NLIB100.RTL\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       39,514 PACKER.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        4,408 PACKER.SET\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       60,898 PARAVIEW.EXE\n07/30/1992  01:00 AM       38,085 PCT2DIB.EXE\n05/07/1991  08:42 PM       25,285 PCXVIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  05:11 PM       59,230 Q&amp;AVIEW.EXE\n05/10/1993  05:12 PM       65,022 RBVIEW.EXE\n11/28/1990  01:00 PM        4,597 READ.NE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        6,919 README.TXT\n05/10/1993  05:12 PM       61,576 REFVIEW.EXE\n06/06/1991  06:00 AM       64,889 SFORMAT.EXE\n02/27/1994  12:50 PM        1,220 STATUS.ME\n07/02/1993  04:01 PM          128 TERM90.DIR\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM      325,623 TERM90.EXE\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       13,343 TERM90.HLP\n03/21/1994  12:53 PM        1,140 TERM90.INI\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM       11,187 TERM90.RES\n05/10/1993  06:52 PM        3,735 TESTMDM.SCX\n01/10/1992  11:23 AM       30,413 TXTVIEW.EXE\n02/27/1994  12:50 PM           50 VIEWER.BAT\n05/28/1992  08:10 PM          324 WPVIEW.CFG\n05/07/1993  11:07 AM       55,824 WPVIEW.EXE\n01/10/1992  11:23 AM       30,053 ZIPVIEW.EXE\n62 File(s) 2,237,459 bytes</code></pre>\n<p>It did not contain any innovative features which would position it above the\nclones that were released the same year.</p>\n<p>I would like to stress it again  that  DOS NC4 failed to beat Volkov Commander\nin this new &quot;orthodox file manager&quot; development game. Volkov Commander was smaller,\nfaster and, paradoxically, richer in features. It was written in assembler (actually\nit was a COM program). In the heavy-weight category NC 4.0 cannot compete with DN\n-- another very innovative and influential orthodox file manager. DN quickly found\npretty wide user community in Eastern Europe. DN was larger then NC 4.0 and was\nwritten in a Turbo Vision which give it a rich Windows-style look and feel despite\nbeing a command line program: windows were very flexible and resizable in all dimensions.\nIt also supported multiple panels. We will discuss both later in the book.</p>\n<p>Due to large size components of NC 4.0 were usually packed (some of them were\npacked by Symantec). Here are comparative result (translated from Russian) from\nthe page <a href=\"http://solidstate.karelia.ru/~yura/pyldin/yura/tst_exep.htm\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Norton\nCommander 4.0 и 5.0 - Test of packers and reference information:</a></p>\n<blockquote><p>Part I</p>\n<div class=\"table-wrap\"><table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Name</strong></td><td><strong>Orig size</strong></td><td><strong>DIET</strong></td><td><strong>PKLITE</strong></td><td><strong>LZEXE</strong></td><td><strong>WWPACK</strong></td><td><strong>UP</strong><strong>X 2.01 --brute --8086</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>INSTALL</strong></td><td><strong>52270</strong></td><td><strong>32374</strong></td><td><strong>32254</strong></td><td><strong>33132</strong></td><td><strong>31032</strong></td><td><strong>30379</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>nc</strong></td><td><strong>2910</strong></td><td><strong>nc.exe should not be packed</strong></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>ncedit</strong></td><td><strong>63152</strong></td><td><strong>39713</strong></td><td><strong>39720</strong></td><td><strong>40512</strong></td><td><strong>37694</strong></td><td><strong>36267</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>ncmain</strong></td><td><strong>212393</strong></td><td><strong>115900</strong></td><td><strong>115214</strong></td><td><strong>116996</strong></td><td><strong>106345</strong></td><td><strong>100047</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>nczip</strong></td><td><strong>93536</strong></td><td><strong>48533</strong></td><td><strong>48051</strong></td><td><strong>49588</strong></td><td><strong>45248</strong></td><td><strong>43128</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>packer</strong></td><td><strong>39514</strong></td><td><strong>22247</strong></td><td><strong>22756</strong></td><td><strong>22613</strong></td><td><strong>21048</strong></td><td><strong>20041</strong></td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n<p><strong><em>Note: TERM90.EXE is unusable in packed format</em></strong></p>\n<p><strong><em>Part II</em></strong><strong>(8 files)</strong></p>\n<div class=\"table-wrap\"><table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Name</strong></td><td><strong>Orig size</strong></td><td><strong>DIET</strong></td><td><strong>PKLITE</strong></td><td><strong>LZEXE</strong></td><td><strong>WWPACK</strong></td><td><strong>UP</strong><strong>X 2.01 --brute --8086</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>123view</strong></td><td><strong>63912</strong></td><td><strong>39670</strong></td><td><strong>39402</strong></td><td><strong>40571</strong></td><td><strong>37620</strong></td><td><strong>36460</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>arcview</strong></td><td><strong>87232</strong></td><td><strong>33328</strong></td><td><strong>33280</strong></td><td><strong>34091</strong></td><td><strong>31479</strong></td><td><strong>30566</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>dbview</strong></td><td><strong>58932</strong></td><td><strong>37156</strong></td><td><strong>36971</strong></td><td><strong>38093</strong></td><td><strong>35350</strong></td><td><strong>34379</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>paraview</strong></td><td><strong>60482</strong></td><td><strong>38418</strong></td><td><strong>38214</strong></td><td><strong>39357</strong></td><td><strong>36539</strong></td><td><strong>35634</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>q&amp;aview</strong></td><td><strong>58814</strong></td><td><strong>37235</strong></td><td><strong>37042</strong></td><td><strong>38173</strong></td><td><strong>35417</strong></td><td><strong>34477</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>rbview</strong></td><td><strong>64606</strong></td><td><strong>40686</strong></td><td><strong>40374</strong></td><td><strong>41597</strong></td><td><strong>38556</strong></td><td><strong>37489</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>refview</strong></td><td><strong>61160</strong></td><td><strong>38745</strong></td><td><strong>38516</strong></td><td><strong>39693</strong></td><td><strong>36833</strong></td><td><strong>35890</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>wpview</strong></td><td><strong>55424</strong></td><td><strong>35520</strong></td><td><strong>35393</strong></td><td><strong>36321</strong></td><td><strong>33968</strong></td><td><strong>32992</strong></td></tr></tbody></table></div></blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"the-last-attempt-to-revive-the-brand-nc-5-0-1993\">The last attempt to revive the brand: NC 5.0 (1993)</h2>\n<p>NC 5.0 was the last &quot;official&quot; version of Norton Commander. It was released in\n1993 just one year after NC 4.0. NC 5.0 was a much better product then version 4.0\nand it did produced really useful, innovative enhancements that defined the OFM\nstandard for years to come.</p>\n<p>But at this time DOS was in severe decline and interest generated\nby new DOS programs started to fade. Windows 3.1 was the name of the game and understanding\nthat the best DOS programs can benefit from conversion into 32-bit interface will\ncome much later with Far and Total commander. There was no such understanding among\nSymantec brass and that probably was the root problem. But this &quot;uncreative destruction&quot; was typical\nfor neoliberal companies, including most  software startups.</p>\n<p>If you never tried this  version to  get some impression of how it looked and behaved\ncan be done by watching  a couple\nof videos on YouTube:</p>\n<p>In a way version 5.5 represented the last attempt by Symantec to recapture the\nmarket share from NC clones. Although it was a very impressive implementation, it\nfailed to revive commercial success of early versions as DOS itself was already\nin decline in 1993 and new DOS programs was less commercially successful then Windows\n3.1 based programs. The time for the commercial success of DOS programs has gone.\nbut that does not mean that the product itself was unviable. It just could produce less money for\nmany years to come, which some maintenance, conversion to 32 bit API and  minimal enhancement.\nThe core functionality was already &quot;in&quot; and major enhancement might spoil the broth.</p>\n<p>Here is the contents of the distribution:</p>\n<pre><code> Name                    Last modified       Size\n---------------------------------------------------\n Parent Directory        25-Jul-2007 13:24      -\n 123VIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   125k\n 4372ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8502ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8632ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8652ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n 8662ANSI.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2437.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2850.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2863.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2865.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ANSI2866.SET            07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n ARC.EXE                 13-Mar-1989 17:30    64k\n ARCVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    80k\n ARJ.EXE                 28-Aug-1992 12:26   106k\n AVIEW.CTL               22-Dec-1993 21:55     1k\n AVIEW.DOC               31-Jan-1993 17:00     8k\n AVIEW.EXE               31-Jan-1993 17:00    55k\n BITMAP.EXE              21-Mar-1994 08:43    54k\n BUG.NSS                 07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n BUNGEE.NSS              07-Feb-1995 04:00    41k\n CHKLIST.MS              22-Nov-1994 20:40     1k\n CLP2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    38k\n CMPSRV.SCX              07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n COMPRESS.HLP            03-May-1990 00:03     6k\n CONNECT.INF             02-May-1995 11:01     1k\n DATEX.P                 07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n DBVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    99k\n DIR2DIR.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    12k\n DRAW2WMF.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00    49k\n DRW2WMF.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    63k\n EVILEYE.NSS             07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n FACES.NSS               07-Feb-1995 04:00    13k\n FIE_ID.DIZ              11-Apr-1995 00:30     1k\n FISH.NSS                07-Feb-1995 04:00    53k\n FLIP.NSS                07-Feb-1995 04:00    51k\n GENIE.SCX               07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n ICO2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n INSTALL.EXE             01-Jan-1994 19:00    51k\n LHA.EXE                 20-Jul-1991 15:13    33k\n LIST.COM                13-Aug-1991 13:06    24k\n LOG.LOG                 11-Apr-1996 15:17     0k\n MCIDRIVR.EXE            26-Jan-1990 18:00    70k\n MOUSE.NSS               07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n MSP2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    27k\n NC.CFG                  08-Apr-1995 12:17     1k\n NC.EXE                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NC.EXT                  27-Jan-1996 18:13     1k\n NC.FIL                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NC.HLP                  07-Feb-1995 04:00    67k\n NC.ICO                  07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC.MNU                  08-Apr-1995 11:49     0k\n NC.MSG                  07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n NC.PIF                  07-Nov-2000 09:07     1k\n NCCLEAN.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   115k\n NCCLEAN.INI             29-Jul-1999 10:28     3k\n NCDD.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   264k\n NCDD.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NCEDIT.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   189k\n NCEDIT.EXT              21-Sep-1995 22:31     1k\n NCEDIT.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     2k\n NCFF.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   103k\n NCFF.HLP                07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NCFF.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NCLABEL.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   164k\n NCMAIN.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   228k\n NCNET.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   181k\n NCNET.INI               29-Apr-1999 13:25     1k\n NCNET.MSG               07-Feb-1995 04:00     5k\n NCPSCRIP.HDR            07-Feb-1995 04:00    13k\n NCSF.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   329k\n NCSF.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n NCSI.EXE                07-Feb-1995 04:00   331k\n NCSI.MSG                07-Feb-1995 04:00     4k\n NCVIEW.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     8k\n NCZIP.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   136k\n NCZIP.MSG               07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC_EXIT.COM             07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n NC_EXIT.DOC             07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n NMAIL.EXE               11-Jun-1993 05:00   221k\n NMAIL.HLP               11-Jun-1993 05:00   129k\n NMAIL.ICO               11-Jun-1993 05:00     1k\n NML_MCI.DRV             11-Jun-1993 05:00    47k\n NML_NMD.OVL             11-Jun-1993 05:00    94k\n NORTON.INI              22-Jul-1997 14:36     2k\n PACKER.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   103k\n PACKER.MSG              07-Feb-1995 04:00     1k\n PACKER.SET              07-Feb-1995 04:00     5k\n PAK.EXE                 08-Oct-1990 08:51   104k\n PAKINST.EXE             08-Oct-1990 08:51    17k\n PARAVIEW.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00   113k\n PCT2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n PKUNZIP.EXE             01-Feb-1993 17:04    29k\n PKZIP.EXE               01-Feb-1993 17:04    41k\n PLAYWAVE.EXE            07-Feb-1995 04:00    25k\n Q&amp;AVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    97k\n RBVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   119k\n README.TXT              07-Feb-1995 04:00    17k\n REFVIEW.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00   115k\n SAVER.EXE               07-Feb-1995 04:00   154k\n TERM95.DIR              02-May-1995 10:59     1k\n TERM95.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00   389k\n TERM95.GTT              07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n TERM95.HLP              07-Feb-1995 04:00    16k\n TERM95.INI              10-May-1996 01:13     1k\n TERM95.RES              07-Feb-1995 04:00    19k\n TESTMDM.SCX             07-Feb-1995 04:00     3k\n TIF2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    46k\n TORNADO.NSS             07-Feb-1995 04:00     9k\n VECTOR.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    62k\n VIEWER.BAT              27-Feb-1995 17:28     1k\n WHATS.NEW               07-Feb-1995 04:00     7k\n WPB2DIB.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    37k\n WPV2WMF.EXE             07-Feb-1995 04:00    60k\n WPVIEW.EXE              07-Feb-1995 04:00    94k\n WS_FTP.LOG              06-Jun-2000 13:38    10k\n ZOO.EXE                 09-Jul-1991 08:53    66k</code></pre>\n<p>Here is the content of <strong>whats.new</strong> file from\nthe distribution:</p>\n<pre><code>What&#39;s New in Norton Commander 5.5\n-----------------------------------\n\n* Drag &amp; Drop\n\nDrag &amp; Drop support now makes it even easier to manipulate your files between\npanels. You can drag as single file, or groups of files and directories.\n\nDrag from one panel to another to copy files, or hold down the ALT key to move\nfiles.\n\nYou can even drag files/directories to the button bar at the bottom of the\nscreen to invoked a file operation.\n\n* Filters\n\nNorton Commander 5.5 features advanced file selection techniques. File\nselection is now based on Operation Filters that affect all file operations\nlike copy, move, synchronise, delete and compress.\n\nOperation Filters allow the users to specify file selection based on file\nname, date and time, file size and even file attributes. This advanced\nselection criteria is traditionally confined to File Finder utilities,\nhowever Norton Commander integrates this feature at the heart of\nthe Commander kernel making it the best all-round file manager available\ntoday.\n\n* Synchronise Directories\n\nThe Norton Commander makes it easy to synchronise files/directories between\ntwo or more machines or network volumes. This feature will be particularly\nuseful for portable computer users that have to keep copies of Filters.\n\n* Compressed File Viewing\n\nNow you can view the contents of any file contained within a compressed file.\nSimply open the compressed file, select the file and press the View button.\n\n* Disk Utilities\n\nThe Norton Commander adds some useful Disk utilities to extend the\nfunctionality of the File Manager so that common day-to-day DOS activities\ncan be carried out from within the Commander environment.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Format Diskette:\n        Format disks easily without worrying about how to use the DOS\n        format command.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Copy Diskette:\n        Create a disk image and make multiple copies of a disk. Simpler\n        and faster than the DOS copy command.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Label Diskette:\n        Now add a label to any DOS drive using this simple and useful\n        utility.\n\n* Network Utilities\n\nThe Norton Commander now lets your perform a variety of operations across a LAN,\nusing a simple menu system and a familiar interface. You can send messages,\nview server volume information, attach to or detach from servers, and map or\nunmap drives.\n\nThe utilities are designed for Novell networks supporting Netware 3.x and\nNetware 4.x.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Send Message:\n        Send Messages and review details of users or groups of Users\n        on the LAN.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Attach/Detach Server:\n        Attach to or Detach from a list of Servers easily with out\n        needing complex syntax.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Drive Mappings:\n        Map drives to servers with the click of a button.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Server Information:\n        Provides information regarding all networks on a LAN.\n\n* File Splitter\n\nThe Norton Commander 5.5 features a file Split and Merge utility that allows\nlarge files be broken down into small ones. Essential if you file wont fit\non one floppy disk. Split it up over a number of disks and remerge later\nonto another hard disk.\n\n* Disk Cleanup\n\nClean you hard disk of unwanted files created by other programs such as\nreadme, autosave and temporary files. Completely configurable to create your\nown file sets.\n\n* File Search\n\nThe Norton Commander File Finder has been completely rewritten and designed\nto provide the following advanced and useful features.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Regular Expressions. You now have greater control in how you\n       define your search criteria when looking for files. You can\n       control what files are included and excluded during the search\n       and locate specific text patterns in files.\n\n    &lt;&gt; File Find Panel. You can send the results of your search\n       operation to a standard Commander File Panel. This is useful when\n       you want to perform block operations on a group of files scattered\n       around different directories on your hard disk.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Duplicate File Searching. You can now search for duplicate files on\n       your hard disk.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Multiple Search locations. You can search multiple locations for\n       your files. You can also use environment variables like %PATH% to\n       guide your file search on your disks.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Commander Line Support. You can launch the Norton Commander to find\n       essential files using command line switches. They offer the full\n       flexibility of the menu driven program.\n\nWhat&#39;s enhanced in the Norton Commander 5.5 ?\n--------------------------------------------\n\n* File Attributes\n\nNow you can select multiple files and directories and set the attributes of\nthe files using one simple step.\n\nUseful for marking all files in a nested directory structure as read-only.\n\n* Configuration Panel\n\nConfiguration has been moved to one location, making it easier to configure\nscreens, panels, screen savers, mouse and video characters.\n\n* System Information\n\nThe Norton Commander System Information has been extended to display\ninformation about memory arrangement, hardware configuration, and CMOS Status.\n\n* File Printing\n\nYou can now print the contents of files to a postscript printer.\n\n* Compression\n\nThe Norton Commander 5.5 now compresses up to 40,000 files, using a variety of\ncompression programs including ZIP, ARC, ARJ, PAK, LHARC and ZOO.\n\n* Delete Command\n\nAn improved Delete command now lets you delete all files in a directory but\nkeeps the directory structure intact. Great for developers archiving a\ndevelopment project who want to get rid of their MAP and LNK files.\n\n* Configuration\n\nThe Configuration of Norton Commander 5.5 has been consolidated into a single, easy-to-use dialog box.\nThrough this one interface users can configure the screen colours, confirmation options, compression\noptions and printer options for all the Commander utilities.\n\nOne new feature supported in the Norton Commander 5.5 is the ability to switch\nthe character set into a semi-graphical one that displays check-boxes and\nradio buttons as they appear in Windows.\n\n* Terminal emulation Program\n\nThe terminal emulation program has been modified to provide support for the\nnewer, more modern UI of Norton Commander 5.5, with support also provided\nfor Keyboard macros, INT-15, and NCSI. The product now also supports data\nconnections at up to 115,200 bps, so users with fast modems can avail of the\nspeed using this product. Access to CompuServe is improved with support for\nthe CompuServe-B file transfer protocol.\n\n* Copy Command\n\nThe Norton Commander Copy command has been modified\n\n    &lt;&gt; Copy newer files only : this can have a dramatic effect on the\n       overall time to copy and synchronise directories from one machine\n       to another. Use in conjunction with the new Synchronise directories\n       command and you have the ideal File Manager for mobile computer\n       users.\n\n    &lt;&gt; Check the destination disk space prior to starting a copy operation.\n\n* Screen Savers\n\nYou can now choose from a selection of 20 text based and graphical screen\nsavers.</code></pre>\n<p>Still version 5 in many way represents the pinnacle of development of Norton\nCommander and <em>can be viewed as a reference implementation for OFM</em>. From the quality\nof implementation point of view NC5 was more stable. The main enhancements introduced\nin NC5 are:</p>\n<p>The archive VFS was probably the most important addition to the OFM paradigm\nin NC 5.0. Actually NC 4.0 also can show archive contents in panel, but unlike NC\n5.0 it cannot view archived files. As I mentioned before, the archive VFS was introduced\nin a guerilla fashion by OFM enthusiasts as add-ons to NC 3.0 (archive viewers with\nNC-like panel structure and operations were very popular addition to NC 3.0), but\nthe level of integration was limited. The archive VFS provides possibilities of\nworking with archives in a completely transparent way by viewing archives as directories.</p>\n<p>The search VFS was the second important addition to OFM paradigm. Search panel\nprovided the following possibilities:</p>\n<blockquote><p>You can even create something called &quot;phantom directories&quot; to group files\ntogether logically, but not physically. For instance, you may want to see\nthe names of all the program files on your disk, usually files that end\nwith the three letters &quot;EXE.&quot; Typically, each program is installed in a\nseparate directory, but using Disc Director you can create a phantom directory\ncalled &quot;programs&quot; that contains every file ending in &quot;EXE.&quot; Then you could\nattach a comment to each so that you could quickly see a description of\nall the programs available in your computer.</p></blockquote>\n<p>For DOS version 5 of NC  was way too large. Here is an interesting\ncomment from 2009 discussion on Slashdot (<a href=\"http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/01/26/1917254/Midnight-Commander-Development-Revived\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Midnight\nCommander Development Revived)</a></p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Re:Norton is going to be pissed... (Score:3)</strong></p>\n<p>by Atilla (64444) writes: on Monday January 26 2009, @09:15PM (#26616043)\nHomepage</p>\n<p>Norton Commander was great until it hit ver. 5, when it became bloatware. It\nfelt sluggish and ate a ton of memory, which was still pretty important then (especially\nfor those that still sported 640K-1M of RAM)...</p>\n<p>Volkov Commander became a great\nsubstitute, since it was written in assembly and the executable was quite a bit\nless than 100K in size (comparing to ~300K or so of NC executable).. It was so common\nin some places (like Russia) that people thought there was something wrong with\na PC if NC or VC wasn&#39;t installed.</p>\n<p><em>sigh</em>... The screen covered up by two big blue panels is forever etched onto\nmy retinas...\n:-)</p></blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"the-last-of-mohicans-norton-commander-5-5-1998\">The Last of Mohicans: Norton Commander 5.5 (1998)</h2>\n<p>Although &quot;official&quot; NC-line lost its overall leadership after NC 3 (one \njust need to compare NC 4.0 with Volkov Commander, or NC 5.0 and DN 1.35 to see\nthe difference), the inertia preserved the importance of the line till the very\nend of the DOS era. NC 5.5 was probably the version that ended NC-line as such.\nIt was released in 1998, one year after FAR.</p>\n<p>Although at this time\nNorton Commander for Windows,\nthe GUI version of Norton Commander already existed (it was released in 1996) and\nwas a 32-bit program, Symantec did not rewrite command line version of NC for 32\nbit subsystem. It remained DOS program. That was the major blunder and predetermined\nthe huge success of FAR as better, faster and 32-bit command line alternative.</p>\n<p>Functionally NC 5.5 is nearly identical to version NC 5.0, but provides Long\nFile Names (LFN) support and has &quot;wide mode&quot; to view such names. There was also\nversion 5.51 released on July 1, 1998.</p>\n<p>OFM1999 standard is largely based on the compatibility\nwith NC 5 (see Chapter 8). In one\n<a href=\"http://www.symantec.com/press/1997/n971211.html\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">document</a>\nSymantec mentioned that Carey Nachenberg was the architect of last versions of Norton\nCommander (I met with him on several antivirus conferences but unfortunately never\ndiscussed this topic):</p>\n<blockquote><p>At 7 p.m. PST on Dec. 17, Symantec&#39;s Nachenberg,\nprincipal software engineer for Norton AntiVirus, will join the Egghead Computer\nPalace. Nachenberg is responsible for researching and developing new technologies\nfor the Norton AntiVirus family of products. He has worked at Symantec for seven\nyears as a software engineer and <strong><em>architect on Norton Commander</em></strong>,\nNorton Desktop for DOS and Norton AntiVirus. Nachenberg has designed and developed\nnumerous anti-virus technologies including the NAV 3.0 engine, the Striker system,\nSymantec&#39;s Bloodhound and NAVEX modular engine technologies.</p></blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"stillborn-norton-commander-for-os-2\">Stillborn -- Norton Commander for OS/2</h2>\n<p>Norton Commander for OS/2 was released by Symantec in\nDecember 1992,\nbut was not well designed and never was popular. It was soon discontinued. Here\nis relevant information from\n<a href=\"https://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.os2.apps/browse_thread/thread/c6009f38a81208a5/fc109e421503be6e#fc109e421503be6e\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">os2 mail list:</a></p>","headings":[{"level":2,"text":"Introduction","id":"introduction"},{"level":2,"text":"The Timeline","id":"the-timeline"},{"level":2,"text":"The initial version of Norton Commander: NC 1.0 (1986)","id":"the-initial-version-of-norton-commander-nc-1-0-1986"},{"level":2,"text":"The first upgrade: NC 2.0 (1988)","id":"the-first-upgrade-nc-2-0-1988"},{"level":2,"text":"The most popular version of Norton Commander ever created: NC 3.0 (1989)","id":"the-most-popular-version-of-norton-commander-ever-created-nc-3-0"},{"level":2,"text":"The first flip-flop: NC 4.0 (1992)","id":"the-first-flip-flop-nc-4-0-1992"},{"level":2,"text":"The last attempt to revive the brand: NC 5.0 (1993)","id":"the-last-attempt-to-revive-the-brand-nc-5-0-1993"},{"level":2,"text":"The Last of Mohicans: Norton Commander 5.5 (1998)","id":"the-last-of-mohicans-norton-commander-5-5-1998"},{"level":2,"text":"Stillborn -- Norton Commander for OS/2","id":"stillborn-norton-commander-for-os-2"}]}}