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.
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.
Comparing Norton selling their company (even to a scummy owner like Symantec) to Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany feels a bit ... extreme ... to me.
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.
Maybe they actually do know their audience, and HN crowd is just... not that audience? I am pretty sure most people have no idea what's wrong with Norton, and the name just sounds vaguely like cybersecurity.
I moved out of the windows world a long time ago. Are virus scanners still a thing? Like, not just a revenue stream, but something you really should run?
I don't think anybody actually installs them on purpose. A lot of systems come with McAfee (Lenovo) or others pre-installed.
Interesting point, I've even has a Lenovo Legion and some ThinkBooks install McAfee autonomously after I installed Windows 11 Pro.
In enterprise environments it's a different story, McAfee and the like have similarly named products for the enterprise which actually do useful things for corporate security (like blocking unauthorized USB devices, blocking unauthorized software, reporting incidents to a central SOC system, etc.)
I do install them. This day only ClamAV I guess. I used (paid for) ESET Linux before they cancelled their Linux consumer line.
On the fence about trying Kaspersky AV Linux. Wouldn't install their suite on Windows though, last I looked at it hooked too many places, causing weird bugs and slowing everything down. Less bad than Comodo, which was able to bork Cygwin, but still.
In home environment: no, because Windows Defender is pretty good now. Some people install other antimalware solutions, but there's no great reason to do it.
In enterprise environment: definitely, for both compliance, management and actual security reasons.
By all reports a sound bike, save for some quirk that might fire both cylinders on the first catch giving a starting kick from zero to rocket in under unprepared reaction time.
Norton is very heated in the comments here. But even separating this concern.
Personally, the landing page itself hurts my trust of the goal.
Why?
When we think of a browser, before anything. We want something that feels snappy and performant. Even if the browser IS snappy. the fact that this page feels unresponsive in a way on my MacBook Pro M1 Pro. already raises concerns of performance.
For my sanity, I've tried Vivaldi's website, Brave's website.
All feels "light" and scrolling is a breeze on Safari.
Those are just my few cents, but I'm pretty sure others might feel the same when making a landing page for any product where it should feel responsive.
What an evil website. Just navigating to it deleted the history, so I couldn't navigate back to hackernews. Ctrl+L wouldn't highlight the navigation bar, either and instead closed the tab.
Of all the new things in 2026, I wasn't expecting friking Norton coming out with a web browser. Too bad that it's yet another Chromium skin, with integrated AI that no one asked for.
Not that I expected any better from Norton tbh, but it's a shame to see a beloved brand from my childhood days fall so far from grace. Norton Utilities for DOS/Win9x used to be the bomb... NCD, NDD, SPEEDISK etc. My last good memory of it was introducing me to Darude Sandstorm. But now... sigh.
i don't need all this shit, can i have a modern browser that run in 10 mb ram and doesnt multiply the memory with tabs. something like kmelon but works on all sites.
I know that the current state of affairs with the AI labs bros can make the old antivirus villains look like lambs; still, I don't see how anyone would like to have anything to do with those guys.
• Longstanding consumer complaints about aggressive upselling, scare-style scan warnings, auto-renewal, and hard-to-cancel billing
• Product often came preinstalled on PCs; many users treated it as unwanted bloatware
• Mixed reputation: lab detection scores often decent; customer-service and billing scores often poor
• 2011–2016 class action (Symantec and Digital River): alleged hidden “download insurance” / extended download service added at checkout; settled for about $60 million
• Canadian class action over alleged defects in an older Norton “decomposer” component (software sold roughly 2010–2016); later settled for tens of millions
• 2013–2022 Columbia University patent case: jury found willful infringement of malware-related patents and awarded $185 million; case later settled
• False Claims Act / GSA contracting: Symantec accused of hiding extra commercial discounts from the U.S. government; 2023 trial findings plus a 2024 Gen Digital payment of $55.1 million to satisfy the judgment
LifeLock (bought by Symantec in 2016; later NortonLifeLock / Gen Digital)
• 2010 FTC settlement: about $12 million for deceptive identity-theft advertising
• 2015 FTC action: about $100 million after LifeLock violated the 2010 order (weak security program and more false claims)
• Recurring criticism that protection/reimbursement marketing overstated what the service actually did
• 2022–2023 credential-stuffing attacks on Norton Password Manager / LifeLock logins using reused passwords from other breaches; company said its own systems were not hacked; thousands of accounts had some personal data accessed and hundreds of thousands of logins were targeted
NortonLifeLock / Gen Digital
• 2021–2022 Norton Crypto: Ethereum miner bundled with Norton 360; company said it was opt-in and took a cut; users and researchers criticized it as inappropriate in a security product; later dropped
• Ongoing complaints about subscription renewals, refunds, and support after the Symantec → NortonLifeLock
→ Gen Digital rebrands
• Privacy/tracking investigations (alleged sharing of site/app data with third-party analytics such as Quantum Metric); not a final court finding
• Separate consumer suits alleging LifeLock failed to alert users or honor “dollar-for-dollar” identity-theft reimbursement promises
I wouldn’t use an immortality serum if it came with Norton branding. How come it is still a thing?
If they were not using actual Norton trademarks I would have thought this was a parody.
Why would anyone use Norton? It's just malware.
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.
And I loved "Norton Commander" and to this day use GUI'fied (and TUI: Midnight Commander) incarnations of it.
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.
Comparing Norton selling their company (even to a scummy owner like Symantec) to Pétain collaborating with Nazi Germany feels a bit ... extreme ... to me.
it's also John McAfee innit
I associate him more with MDPV-derived psychosis, personally.
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.
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.
I'm similarly lost here.
If this is Norton, why wouldn't they be aware of how people see the very name "Norton", and avoid slapping it on any new products?
If this is NOT Norton, same applies, why would you include a term that almost causes gag-reflexes among large parts of your supposed audience?
Maybe they actually do know their audience, and HN crowd is just... not that audience? I am pretty sure most people have no idea what's wrong with Norton, and the name just sounds vaguely like cybersecurity.
100%. Anything with the name "Norton" is burned for me. This goes back to uninstallable Software around Windows XP era.
Don't forget privacy policy.
Norton is owned by Avast owner which sold data for ads.
We've come a long way if people are being warned off Norton on account of its association with Avast.
(in my day we were warning people off Avast on account of its similarities to Norton)
The parent company is Gen Digital now, and its product line is: Norton / Avast / AVG / Avira / CCleaner
I have no idea why anyone would install and use their browser.
I moved out of the windows world a long time ago. Are virus scanners still a thing? Like, not just a revenue stream, but something you really should run?
I don't think anybody actually installs them on purpose. A lot of systems come with McAfee (Lenovo) or others pre-installed.
Interesting point, I've even has a Lenovo Legion and some ThinkBooks install McAfee autonomously after I installed Windows 11 Pro.
In enterprise environments it's a different story, McAfee and the like have similarly named products for the enterprise which actually do useful things for corporate security (like blocking unauthorized USB devices, blocking unauthorized software, reporting incidents to a central SOC system, etc.)
I do install them. This day only ClamAV I guess. I used (paid for) ESET Linux before they cancelled their Linux consumer line.
On the fence about trying Kaspersky AV Linux. Wouldn't install their suite on Windows though, last I looked at it hooked too many places, causing weird bugs and slowing everything down. Less bad than Comodo, which was able to bork Cygwin, but still.
In home environment: no, because Windows Defender is pretty good now. Some people install other antimalware solutions, but there's no great reason to do it.
In enterprise environment: definitely, for both compliance, management and actual security reasons.
AVAST VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED.
Blasting out my PC speakers at 2am...
The only good Norton is Norton Commander!
Were the motorbikes bad?
Epic. My aunt had a 1st gen Norton Model 77 Dominator in the later part of the 1950s as a wheatbelt paddock basher and offroad cross country beast.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Model_77_Dominator
500cc version of this reviewed 600cc variation: https://www.classicbikehub.uk/buying-guide/article/norton-mo...
By all reports a sound bike, save for some quirk that might fire both cylinders on the first catch giving a starting kick from zero to rocket in under unprepared reaction time.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight-twin_engine
They had a lot of models, some were famous for racing and hill climbs.
These twin arrangements look really interesting. Puch experimented with pairing up pistons inside a shared combustion chamber with a Y-shaped conrod: https://engineerine.com/the-forgotten-twingle-engine/
Including the Norton uhh... Commander. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_Commander_(motorcycle)
Chromium based, not open source.
yeah, I think I can vibecode it under a week.
Hard to find a site this less interesting, for a product this less interesting from a company that i would never trust
Norton is very heated in the comments here. But even separating this concern.
Personally, the landing page itself hurts my trust of the goal.
Why?
When we think of a browser, before anything. We want something that feels snappy and performant. Even if the browser IS snappy. the fact that this page feels unresponsive in a way on my MacBook Pro M1 Pro. already raises concerns of performance.
For my sanity, I've tried Vivaldi's website, Brave's website. All feels "light" and scrolling is a breeze on Safari.
Those are just my few cents, but I'm pretty sure others might feel the same when making a landing page for any product where it should feel responsive.
What an evil website. Just navigating to it deleted the history, so I couldn't navigate back to hackernews. Ctrl+L wouldn't highlight the navigation bar, either and instead closed the tab.
The scrolljacking website is so annoying. That alone is enough to deter me from this product.
Of all the new things in 2026, I wasn't expecting friking Norton coming out with a web browser. Too bad that it's yet another Chromium skin, with integrated AI that no one asked for.
Not that I expected any better from Norton tbh, but it's a shame to see a beloved brand from my childhood days fall so far from grace. Norton Utilities for DOS/Win9x used to be the bomb... NCD, NDD, SPEEDISK etc. My last good memory of it was introducing me to Darude Sandstorm. But now... sigh.
I really miss the times of Pete's Norton Utilities for DOS.
Windows was a mistake I blame Apple for.
The only useful norton software was the Norton Ghost
Doesn’t Brave offer most of those features?
i don't need all this shit, can i have a modern browser that run in 10 mb ram and doesnt multiply the memory with tabs. something like kmelon but works on all sites.
So this is from Symantec?
Quite a lot in their privacy policy for a “private” browser
So everyone is upvoting this post to shit on Norton?
I guess it’s good to warn about bad actors early and throughly!
Given the reputation, who the hell is the audience for this crap?
People who have Norton pre-installed to install it for them, probably.
I wonder what Microslop would think if a pre-installed antivirus decided to set this browser as the default over Edge.
I know that the current state of affairs with the AI labs bros can make the old antivirus villains look like lambs; still, I don't see how anyone would like to have anything to do with those guys.
Would you trust this company?
Symantec / Norton:
• Longstanding consumer complaints about aggressive upselling, scare-style scan warnings, auto-renewal, and hard-to-cancel billing
• Product often came preinstalled on PCs; many users treated it as unwanted bloatware
• Mixed reputation: lab detection scores often decent; customer-service and billing scores often poor
• 2011–2016 class action (Symantec and Digital River): alleged hidden “download insurance” / extended download service added at checkout; settled for about $60 million
• Canadian class action over alleged defects in an older Norton “decomposer” component (software sold roughly 2010–2016); later settled for tens of millions
• 2013–2022 Columbia University patent case: jury found willful infringement of malware-related patents and awarded $185 million; case later settled
• False Claims Act / GSA contracting: Symantec accused of hiding extra commercial discounts from the U.S. government; 2023 trial findings plus a 2024 Gen Digital payment of $55.1 million to satisfy the judgment LifeLock (bought by Symantec in 2016; later NortonLifeLock / Gen Digital)
• 2010 FTC settlement: about $12 million for deceptive identity-theft advertising
• 2015 FTC action: about $100 million after LifeLock violated the 2010 order (weak security program and more false claims)
• Recurring criticism that protection/reimbursement marketing overstated what the service actually did
• 2022–2023 credential-stuffing attacks on Norton Password Manager / LifeLock logins using reused passwords from other breaches; company said its own systems were not hacked; thousands of accounts had some personal data accessed and hundreds of thousands of logins were targeted
NortonLifeLock / Gen Digital
• 2021–2022 Norton Crypto: Ethereum miner bundled with Norton 360; company said it was opt-in and took a cut; users and researchers criticized it as inappropriate in a security product; later dropped
• Ongoing complaints about subscription renewals, refunds, and support after the Symantec → NortonLifeLock → Gen Digital rebrands
• Privacy/tracking investigations (alleged sharing of site/app data with third-party analytics such as Quantum Metric); not a final court finding
• Separate consumer suits alleging LifeLock failed to alert users or honor “dollar-for-dollar” identity-theft reimbursement promises
This was dead. Not sure why, but vouched, it's relevant.
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