What does Linux have to do with Dickens?
Source: O'Reilly Net
O'Reilly's PR department has been working on making press releases more entertaining, and this latest effort, for the new edition of Learning Red Hat Linux, opens with a great image that made me laugh out loud -- comparing the reaction of Windows or Mac users faced with a Unix/Linux system to Dickens' character Little Dorrit:
"A change in circumstances can be surprisingly disorienting. Consider Little Dorrit, the Charles Dickens' protagonist who was born and lived her entire life within the walls of the Marshalsea debtors' prison. Upon learning that she and her family were not only free to leave, but were also wealthy, Little Dorrit promptly fainted. Similarly, Windows and Mac users confronting a Unix-based operating system for the first time--while not reacting quite so dramatically as Little Dorrit--may find the experience disconcerting. But, there is help available to ease the transition. "Learning Red Hat Linux, Third Edition" by Bill McCarty (O'Reilly, US $39.95) provides a comprehensive yet gentle entry to the world of Linux with new users in mind, specifically, the popular Red Hat distribution of Linux.
OK, maybe this isn't fair since both Windows and Mac actually do have rich heritages of their own, but I love the image of Windows as a debtor's prison, and users falling away in a faint when they realize that not only are they free, but they are rich. A great bit of theater.
I also think that publicist Kathryn Barrett's literary efforts definitely take the art of PR to a new level. Beyond Cluetrain! Cluetrain said to skip the corporate speak and enter into conversations. Kathryn is showing us a new type of entertaining conversational gambit.
