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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 2mo 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 2mo ago[deleted]
- corgi192 2mo agoit's also John McAfee innit
- girvo 2mo agoI associate him more with MDPV-derived psychosis, personally.
- embedding-shape 2mo agoIt 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 2mo agoComparing Norton selling their company (even to a scummy owner like Symantec) to Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany feels a bit ... extreme ... to me.
- embedding-shape 2mo agoYup, that's exactly what I said. Quoting myself verbatim: > Norton selling his company is exactly like Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany I wish I didn't say that, but what can you do. Sometime y'all need to probably chug a glass a water and re-read the comment you're about to reply to.
- bbarn 2mo agoPétain was a soldier with what, 50 years of experience when he made that choice? He picked the wrong side obviously, but is it also possible he did what he though was best for France? Both things can be true.
- embedding-shape 2mo agoYeah, I don't doubt that he did what he thought was best, I think most if not all humans do that most of the time. But I do think the general sentiment about him did shift a bit after he made that choice, which was the point.
- specialist 2mo agoMe 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 2mo agoThis. 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 2mo agoAnd I loved "Norton Commander" and to this day use GUI'fied (and TUI: Midnight Commander) incarnations of it.
- bbarn 2mo agoI like one called Total Commander - the UI feels dated by damn am I fast with it.