Development of Norton Commander

falsaberN1 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I owe Norton a lot of joy for bringing orthodox file managers (the ones with two panes) and I can't live without them. They make file managing so comfortable compared to stuff like Windows Explorer or Nautilus (not saying they are bad though, I just prefer two panes).

Nowadays I mostly use clones like Midnight Commander, Krusader and Double Commander, and I used Worker (a clone of a clone, this time a clone of Directory Opus for the Amiga) for a long time before settling on Krusader as main one. The genealogy of these file managers is kind of fascinating.

Anyone else a fan?

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rzzzt 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

We were using Volkov Commander because it was much smaller (and single-file executable IIRC). I tried Dos Navigator and FAR but these did too much for my liking. In the Windows XP era Windows/Total Commander was in style locally.

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B4st144n an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm using 'mc' on Linux from time to time and total commander on my mobile with the sftp plugin. Still remember Norton from back in the days this way ;-)

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opan 31 minutes ago | parent [-]

>and total commander on my mobile with the sftp plugin.

I think you may mean Ghost Commander, I use it on Android and it fits your description.

	▲	Matl 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Why? Total Commander for Android is a thing.

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ant6n 16 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Totalcmd on windows. On Mac I’m using some off-brand klone that’s kinda ok but uses like 1GB of memory per instance window. Mac OS is such a shit show these days.

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hn_submit 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use one of its descendants, Total Commander, every day. It's one of the few applications I actually paid for, it's that critical for my daily computer usage.

What I love about it is that you get lifetime free updates.

I suspect that the author got setup for life selling it and instead of cashing out and selling it to some bigcorp (who undoubtedly would've changed the free update policy) he decided to keep the updates free forever.

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majkinetor 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I suggest its clone, Double Commander. Does everything as TC, supports its plugins and is cross platform and open source. I was very active in TC community until I switched to DC.

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rzzzt 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

Is it possible to show a dialog at startup that waits until I press one of the 1-2-3 buttons?

	▲	majkinetor 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Of course. How can you even ask that.

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vjvjvjvjghv 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I am always amazed looking at tools like Norton Commander or Visicalc that invented a ton of concepts we now view as totally normal and just as the way things are. Same for a lot of programming concepts. The world could look totally different if some people had been better at selling their ideas.

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teddyh an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I came to Unix from an MS-DOS background, where I used Norton Commander a lot. I used to keep an older version of NC – which would fit on a floppy – with me at all times. But on Unix, I ended up not using any of the clones; not even Midnight Commander, which was a key-for key clone, and should have fit me perfectly. It turns out you, or at least I, just don’t use Unix the same way as I did MS-DOS. When I need to manipulate files in any quantity, I use Emacs and its dired-mode.

See especially the “wdired-change-to-wdired-mode” command, now available on the usual “toggle read-only mode” keystroke C-x C-q – it’s magical.

(This has been an 11 year old repost of <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9474384>.)

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LocalH 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was an Amiga kid, so Directory Opus was my Norton Commander. I still use Directory Opus on Windows to this day

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chris_wot 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Does anyone remember their disk deframenter?

I had Gemini implement a simulation:

https://chrissherlock.github.io/operating-system/week10-file...