The New York Times late Friday swatted down last week’s rumors that Dell (DELL) might buy Palm(PALM).

The Times contends there is “no credible evidence, not even unsourced rumors,” that such a deal is going to happen. The item said that the combination has a “certain logic,” given Dell has handset business, while Palm just launched the Pre and the WebOS operating system to generally positive reviews.

But the Times adds that there “is something deeply wrong with the idea of Dell buying Palm,” which is that the two have “equally valid but diametrically opposed visions of the computer business.” Dell, the Times says, is built on the idea that a PC is a commodity. Palm takes the opposite view. (Like Apple.)

“For Dell to buy and profit from Palm, it would have to commit itself to being a software company first and foremost and to operate to maximize margin rather than maximizing volume,” the Times said in a blog post. “This is far more radical than its current attempts to add a bit of style to its line with fancy cases on commodity hardware, as it does with its Adamo line.”

The post theorizes that Palm might have a better fit with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), asserting that “HP wants to be Apple, but it has the business of Dell.”

PALM today is off 62 cents, or 4.3%, to $13.96.