That was six years ago. HP is the number one computer manufacturer these days. Just check out their market value if you don't believe it. By the way, I have had experience working with most of these computers (servers, workstations, and laptops) from DELL, HP, Compaq, IBM, and SUN with most of the OSs (Windows VISTA, XP, Longhorn, SLES, SLED, RHEL (Server and Workstations), Fedora, Novell Netware, HP-UX), and HP and COMPAQ products are the best for all of these OSs.
Truly, its like comparing between google and yahoo, which one is the best search engine? It all depends on what you are looking for, but overall, google is more reliable than yahoo.  Here, you are comparing between two different companies products, and it all depends on what you are looking for. HP is double the size of Dell and have more people working for them, and it means that HP has better support service. Other than that, they both use same thing, They both have their own motherboard and BIOS, Intel or AMD processor, Intel or Broadcom network card, ATI or nVidia graphics card.
My best suggestion is build your laptop in mind, know what you want, and go for the  one that  fulfills most of your  requirements in lowest price and highest support service.
Good luck...