6 ms·

It's definitely one of the saddest stories in our industry. Peter Norton's books literally taught me to program as a teenager, and now his name is synonymous w

by bbarn 5d ago

It's definitely one of the saddest stories in our industry. Peter Norton's books literally taught me to program as a teenager, and now his name is synonymous with mal/bloatware.

deleted 5d ago
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corgi192 5d ago
it's also John McAfee innit
- girvo 5d ago
  I associate him more with MDPV-derived psychosis, personally.
embedding-shape 5d ago
It is sad to again and again be reminded that even the ones we see as heroes earlier in our lives, could do something to kind of "tarnish" our idea of them. I think lately I've gotten better at handling coming across this, as I'm getting better at realizing we're all just humans, and what we see from these public people is often just a small selected slice, we're all flawed in our ways, but we typically don't get to see those unless it's something extreme, one way or another. Many cases of this happening too, people loved and celebrated for years/decades, then does something that just absolutely tarnishes everything they would have been remembered for. Philippe Pétain comes to mind as an extreme example, one of France's greatest national heroes up until late in his life, he became head of the Vichy regime and collaborated closely with Nazi Germany.
- thenewnewguy 5d ago
  Comparing Norton selling their company (even to a scummy owner like Symantec) to Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany feels a bit ... extreme ... to me.
specialist 5d ago
Me too. It'd be nice if shoutouts included time spans, thusly: "In my travels, I always had my copies of Norton [1981-1989] books and utilities." I respect any artist (creator) that manages to get paid, so I don't begrudge the sale/merger with Symantic. It's just too bad Things Fall Apart because number must go up.
- jasomill 4d ago
  This. I'll never begrduge anyone for "selling out" until I'm given a similar opportunity to do so myself. Peter Norton clearly had interests other than running a software company, and I can't say I blame him. Speaking as a fan of Norton's books and utilities in the DOS era.
cagey 5d ago
And I loved "Norton Commander" and to this day use GUI'fied (and TUI: Midnight Commander) incarnations of it.

by bbarn 5d ago

It's definitely one of the saddest stories in our industry. Peter Norton's books literally taught me to program as a teenager, and now his name is synonymous with mal/bloatware.

deleted 5d ago

[deleted]

corgi192 5d ago

it's also John McAfee innit

girvo 5d ago
I associate him more with MDPV-derived psychosis, personally.

embedding-shape 5d ago

It is sad to again and again be reminded that even the ones we see as heroes earlier in our lives, could do something to kind of "tarnish" our idea of them. I think lately I've gotten better at handling coming across this, as I'm getting better at realizing we're all just humans, and what we see from these public people is often just a small selected slice, we're all flawed in our ways, but we typically don't get to see those unless it's something extreme, one way or another. Many cases of this happening too, people loved and celebrated for years/decades, then does something that just absolutely tarnishes everything they would have been remembered for. Philippe Pétain comes to mind as an extreme example, one of France's greatest national heroes up until late in his life, he became head of the Vichy regime and collaborated closely with Nazi Germany.

thenewnewguy 5d ago
Comparing Norton selling their company (even to a scummy owner like Symantec) to Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany feels a bit ... extreme ... to me.

specialist 5d ago

Me too. It'd be nice if shoutouts included time spans, thusly: "In my travels, I always had my copies of Norton [1981-1989] books and utilities." I respect any artist (creator) that manages to get paid, so I don't begrudge the sale/merger with Symantic. It's just too bad Things Fall Apart because number must go up.

jasomill 4d ago
This. I'll never begrduge anyone for "selling out" until I'm given a similar opportunity to do so myself. Peter Norton clearly had interests other than running a software company, and I can't say I blame him. Speaking as a fan of Norton's books and utilities in the DOS era.

cagey 5d ago

And I loved "Norton Commander" and to this day use GUI'fied (and TUI: Midnight Commander) incarnations of it.