A look-like of the old Norton Commander in Unix is Midnight Commander. I have been using it for years, and in some situations it is particularly useful.
In Debian to install it, do:
apt-get install mc
To run it you call
mc
Besides the familiar text graphical interface, in the bottom (command) line you can also perform shell commands.
Some functionalities are also associated to commands by default, and you can create new associations.
Midnight Commander also understands ssh/scp and one of the two text windows can be a remote one.
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