What does Linux have to do with Dickens?

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Tim O'Reilly
Mar. 16, 2003 11:03 AM
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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.

Other recent press releases have compared the job of the webmaster to the horse-carrot theorem in thermodynamics, and genetic sequence analysis to bird watching, each time with great eclat. If you're looking for a rich new source of metaphors for technical topics, you can't do better than to follow Kathyrn's work.

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. In addition to Foo Camps ("Friends of O'Reilly" Camps, which gave rise to the "un-conference" movement), O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the Web 2.0 Summit, the Web 2.0 Expo, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Gov 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Expo. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim's long-term vision for his company is to change the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators. In addition to O'Reilly Media, Tim is a founder of Safari Books Online, a pioneering subscription service for accessing books online, and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, an early-stage venture firm.

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Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

Don't group Mac and Window's users together
2003-03-18 10:07:24 Daniel H. Steinberg | [Reply | View]

Tim,

I didn't want to take away from your nice blog with the Dickens reference. I refer to the sentence "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." Though beautifully put, this is, of course, severely flawed. Mac OS X is UNIX.

Admitedly, there are two kinds of Mac Users

(1) Those that don't know they're using a UNIX box. They would be as surprised by reading your Mac for Unix/Unix for Mac books as they would by the Linux title that is the subject of the PR release.

(2) Those that do know they're using a UNIX box. For lack of a literary reference, for them the experience is like the Casablanca scene where Louis (sp?) is expressing his shock that Rick is running a gambling joint while pocketing his share of the take.

On the other hand -- it is nice to see a technology publishing company where the PR team knows enough to make such a literary reference and the publisher knows enough to recognize it.

Best,

Daniel

an image to make you cry
2003-03-17 13:58:06 mentata [Reply | View]

And what of poor Arthur Clennam? A diligent and earnest inventor, he is thwarted by the nefarious Office of Circumlocution and sentenced as a debtor to the Marshalsea prison even as the fainiting Little Dorrit and her family depart. With the momentum behind Linux and open source, it seems impossible to me that I will ever again be confined to Windows, but I know of many Unix developers who through forces beyond their control (e.g. new management) have had their platform yanked from under them and been forced to rethink their experience in software coding under the relatively less diverse Microsoft paradigm.

The learned Ms. Barrett has found a powerful metaphor indeed; one that goes both ways. And there's a lesson, too: Clennam finds solace and redemption only when Little Dorrit reaches back.

Thanks..
2003-03-16 16:48:50 dieringer [Reply | View]

..for pointing Kathryn's work out! It's far more entertaining than the typical corporate hype/speak one sees these days.

And thanks for giving someone so talented 'free reign'.

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

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