WSJ.com - The Laptop Trail As mentioned previously, the sooner we cut out the middlemen the better. Don't feel sorry for anyone at Dell or HP, they were laid off long ago. Do you REALLY care what logo is on your laptop? Wouldn't you rather select the best from the companies that actually MAKE the machine rather than the best marketing machine? I would. I wonder what would happen if we were forced to re-invent our own laptop manufacturing capability... imagine some huge Soviet looking thing being the result. Sad huh?