Growing up in the 90s, Norton Commander had this aura of mystery around it.

A lot of people I've met believed that it was a separate operating system. For example, I remember asking a friend "Did your computer had DOS in the beginning?" and he replied "Even worse, Norton."

My mom found me once aimlessly using my cousin's computer and she was shocked to discover I had opened Norton Commander (unintentionally of course) and told me "you know if you delete that, you'll delete all programs in the system" (passing over the absurdity of the claim itself, even then I didn't understand how opening it will make it more probable to delete it).

Not being Anglophone, even the name "Norton" sounded a bit dangerous, like something radioactive I guess.

Anyway afterwards when we got our own computer I pieced together what Norton actually was and the aura disappeared.