“Thus it came to pass that I stood ringing the doorbell at my
parent’s house one Saturday a few weeks ago, as a travelling
salesman — a Willy Loman coming in out of the cold, immense
wasteland of the twenty-first century and reaching back into a
sepia-toned past for some warmth.”
“My father has never owned or used a computer in his nearly
seventy years on this planet. He is still working as a
pediatrician and serves as chairman of a special committee for the
College of Physicians and Surgeons. It is this latter appointment
which has forced him to start thinking about using a computer. By
coincidence, as if Fate had ordained it, my sister had decided to
get rid of her old Pentium Pro. She had shipped it to my parents’
house and it had arrived several days before my visit, neatly
packed in Air Canada crates.”
“Faster than you could say Microsoft, I dashed out to pick up a
copy of Red Hat 6.0.”