Just as the concept of the IBM PC brought stability and compatibility to the computing world, MS-DOS managed to do the same, but no one denies that some of its limitations were very significant... starting with the interface. Many companies tried to fill that void with the development of file managers, and if we have to put one above the rest, it's definitely Norton Commander, which inspired (and still inspires) dozens of clones.
Entering the world of computing in the '80s wasn't exactly simple. In fact, advancing from the so-called home systems to IBM-compatible PC clones required a ritual not entirely suitable for beginners, due to the manuals (with hundreds of pages!) that accompanied some new computers, and the natural MS-DOS interface. I'm not exaggerating: Everything the average PC offered in terms of text and graphics was this:
One of the big challenges companies of that era had to face was building bridges, routes, and mechanisms to bring users and their computers closer. That gave rise to interactive tutorials, keyboard shortcut overlays, and, of course, dedicated software.
File managers quickly became a fundamental piece of the puzzle. One of the first examples was PathMinder by Westlake Data Corporation, which hit the shelves in September 1984, but two years later the program many users crowned as the definitive file manager debuted: Norton Commander.
Norton Commander: A 'steering wheel' for MS-DOS
Despite what its name suggests, Norton Commander is a creation of developer John Socha, who today is a principal software architect at Microsoft. It was originally called VDOS (Visual DOS), and its early versions were written in assembly, but Socha himself admitted that consumed too much time, and he finally opted for a mix of assembly and C. Later he joined Peter Norton Computing as director of research and development, and VDOS became Norton Commander for its first public version.
When you open Norton Commander for the first time, you might find two additional command bars with no extra information, but pressing Ctrl+F1 and Ctrl+F2 activates the two iconic panels that split the screen in half: Left and Right. Each of these panels can show different levels of detail about the files and directories stored. Brief is a list of the contents, Full divides the panel into name, size, date, and time, Wide removes the time column, Tree generates a tree with all directories and subdirectories on the drive, and Quick View activates a quick preview of what each file contains.
The Files menu shows a list of the main commands associated with the function keys. The most prominent stretch from F3 to F8: F3 and F4 are file viewing and editing respectively (yes, you can edit text files from inside Norton Commander), F5 and F6 handle copying and moving, F7 creates new directories, and F8 deletes. F9 is the Pull Down that activates the top menu, and F10 is Quit, which takes you back to the original shell. To change the drive represented in each panel, the shortcuts are Alt+F1 (Left) and Alt+F2 (Right).
Now, calling Norton Commander a "simple file manager" would be a grave mistake. The program includes tools to copy and format diskettes, change disk labels, and clean drives (VERY important if you're counting hard drive capacity in megabytes), a hardware identifier, a terminal emulator to connect to old BBSs, a 50-line EGA mode, and something truly essential: Link support to transfer files between two computers using COM and LPT ports. The transfer speed was abysmal, but the alternative took us back to diskettes. Norton Commander not only gave us plenty of reasons to never drop down to standard DOS, but also protected our mental health.
What if I want it on Windows?
Development of Norton Commander for MS-DOS continued until July 1998 with the release of the final version 5.51, improving its compatibility under Windows (the so-called Norton Commander for Windows ended its run at version 2.01) and adding long filename support, but by then Microsoft had already conquered everything in its path.
However, Norton Commander has been (and still is) one of the most cloned programs in the world. Volkov Commander debuted in '92, and Miguel de Icaza created the fabulous Midnight Commander for Linux in 1994 (with Windows ports and recent updates). If you prefer even more advanced clones, I can name three that definitely deserve your attention: Total Commander, shareware with plugin support and an Android variant, Double Commander, which I talked about recently, and Multi Commander, recommended by our own readers. Give them a try!
