alphabet by the numbers

Exciting times ahead as Silicon Valley fully innovates the chaebol model.

I had a long piece for you this morning about Alphabet pivoting away from Apple as role model to Samsung as role model. The punchline was that Alphabet has floated no fewer than two barges while Samsung manufactures barges with more interior space than Apple's old campus at 1 Infinite Loop.

The rest was a reminder that the Samsung Group is already an established player in automobiles, shipbuilding, consumer electronics, renewable energy, healthcare, aviation, and self-propelled artillery.

I concede the point that Alphabet companies dominate in internet search.

The piece ran off the rails. Every small research task, like tracking down sales of Samsung electric cars in 2013, slipped instead into a search for a new computer for my daughter.

My daughter turns seven this fall and she wants a new computer. She would like to use logo, control our printer, our Graphtec plotter, our 3d printer, and the milling machine. She would like to use her MIDI keyboard. She would like to use both latin and chinese characters. She is comfortable with our Macintoshes and with her iPad.

I would like the answer to be a touch screen laptop or a touch screen portable all-in-one of the type that Google, Samsung, Asus, and probably even the North Koreans now make but which Apple does not. I would also like the answer to be a machine that works properly offline, works without remote credentials, without signed code, and without requiring an app store.

MacOS is out (no touch). ChromeOS is out (no printing without credentials). Android is out (no non-Play browser with MIDI). iOS is out (requires an app store. No non-store browser with MIDI).

The best answer, somehow, may be Firefox on either Ubuntu or Windows 10. Best or not, I have not yet found a computer at any price that I can give my daughter without apologizing for it. With this task still looming over me, I guess I just don't care what Silicon Valley companies call themselves.