[pashky]

Would you imagine that instead of browsing records in a shop or even listening to radio all you and your friends have is the same mixtape copied over and over again? Sounds weird, but that's how software distributed from 80s well into mid-00s in Russia.

You didn't get particular products, you got a disk with "all the good bits" according to someone. Somehow Norton Commander ended up in the list at some point, so it instantly became a default and nobody knew anything better. Every DOS computer in 90s Russia booted right into NC, or its Russian clone VC.

[v_lisivka]

VC was too lightweight. Dos Navigator, written in Turbo Vision by developers from Moldova, was much better and replaced Norton Commander very quickly.

[zerr]

VC was written in asm.

[rjzzleep]

I don't know, is it? That's kinda how stuff was distributed in Germany back in the days. At least I think, I don't quite remember in detail what was on those disks. Although I don't remember any computer booting straight into nc

Was it that much different in the US?