Character
Norton-kun is a young man with short brown (#5f4136) hair and glasses. He wears a dark gray (#25303c) suit with yellow-gold (#c0a000) accents on the lapels, edges, and pockets, a white shirt (#fefefe) with a yellow-gold tie (#f7d736), a dark gray belt (#4b4d4d) featuring a yellow-gold buckle and dark gray shoes (#4b4d4d) with yellow-gold (#f7d736) laces. His glasses have dark gray (#4b4d4d) frames, and he wears a yellow-gold (#f7d736) watch. Norton-kun represents all products made by Peter Norton Computing, including antivirus software, disk utilities, and system tools and the software after Norton was acquired by Symantec.
He was originally a human who recovered a file after they accidentally deleted it but thought being a human was too limiting for him to be able to do tasks effectively, so he was initiated into being a Program-kun instead.
He started as a data restorer, specializing in recovering erased files for MS-DOS-kun, PC-DOS-kun, and Windows 3.X-kun. He would also repair damaged files, complete floppy disk displays and maps, and make easy changes to floppy disk sectors and all sorts of stuff however he was well known for recovering erased files. Norton and Windows 3.X did not talk much until 1994 with him having to consult Norton at one point. With his new success, he stepped into authorship and decided he wished to gain more skills so his followers helped support him with this goal. In August 1990, the higher-ups as part of his company sold the company to Symantec for $70 million, therefore he was hired by Symantec Antivirus-kun... or well, "hired".
The merger introduced Norton to malware challenges, initially struggling but eventually creating the NAV gun for effective defense. One of his main rivals was the malware known as Michelangelo from around 1992. Symantec Antivirus-kun disappeared in 1998 despite being his tutor with dealing with malware, even though Norton was not good at it at first. From 2000 onwards, Norton faced criticism for system performance impact, cooperation with the FBI, faulty updates, and ethical concerns.
In 2007, Norton had the chance to upgrade his gun into the NAV-N360. Acquisitions his company resulted in Norton living with three sisters - Avast, AVG, and Avira - collectively combating malware despite Norton's tarnished reputation.
Family and Relationships
Symantec Antivirus
Symantec Antivirus, the man who had hired him. Symantec Antivirus ended up feeling like that Norton could do his job better and the higher-ups only added to this feeling when SAM was renamed Norton AntiVirus (NAV) for Macintosh.
Norton feels bad about Symantec Antivirus being replaced by him but doesn't know his whereabouts after he disappeared in 1998.
Avast, AVG and Avira
Avast, AVG and Avira are considered to be Norton's stepsisters, noting that their parent companies had been either brought or merged with Gen Digital.
Abilities
Despite being a man of multiple talents, he is well known for being able to recover data that had been deleted or erased, assisting DOS-tans (mainly MS-DOS) in finding stuff and fighting malware.
He also wields the NAV-N360, a rifle he uses for fighting malware. The name is a combination of Norton AntiVirus and Norton 360. It used to be called NAV until he upgraded it to have more powers.
References and sources
- His attire is based on Norton AntiVirus 2009.
- Symantec Antivirus being Norton's teacher but then disappearing is a reference to how prior to Symantec acquiring Peter Norton Computing in the 1990s, Symantec launched Symantec Antivirus for the Macintosh. With the 1998 version 5.0 update, SAM was renamed Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh. At the time I did this research origianlly I could not find copies of Symantec AntiVirus online, but I ended up finding one so Symantec AntiVirus isn't so gone after all.
- Avast, AVG and Avira being his stepsisters is a reference to how Norton, AVG, Avira, and Avast are products sold by Gen Digital, formerly known as Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock.
- Since Norton is a catch-all character for the software & products made by Norton Computing and after Norton was acquired by Symantec, some parts of his character come from Peter Norton himself such as how Peter Norton wrote a program to recover information from disks rather than re-entering data
- Norton Commander is a file manager released by Peter Norton Computing
- His debut as a "MalwareBuster" in the 1990s is a reference to how back in early 1991, Norton Group launched Norton AntiVirus 1.0 for PC and compatible computers due to foreign virus strains emerging as the latest threat to U.S. PCs.
- Norton being friends with MS-DOS, PC-DOS and Windows 3.X is a reference to how Version 1.0 of Norton Utilities supported DOS 1.x whereas Version 8.0 adds Windows 3.1 utilities.
- Norton-kun being a catch-all character for all Norton software is due to the fact the currently existing Norton only representing Norton Antivirus and being kind of a bad portrayal of Norton Antivirus itself. I mean, Peter Norton seems like a chill guy based on his Wikipedia page while John McAfee was a total nutjob plus Norton Utilities did not include antivirus features.
- Norton having a rocky start with his debut is a reference to how the original Norton Antivirus 1.0 had a bug that does not repair infected files or boot sectors properly which was fixed in version 1.5.
- Norton facing criticism and becoming somewhat cynical is a reference to how as the years passed, Norton was seen as a crappy antivirus because it came preinstalled on some computers, but also the fact Symantec and other major antivirus vendors whitelisted the Magic Lantern trojan, rendering their antivirus products, including Norton AntiVirus, incapable of detecting it
- The Michelangelo virus being his main rival is a reference to how a free version of the antivirus was offered due to the Michelangelo virus in early 1992 being publicised. This version is used only to detect the Michelangelo virus.