Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep. BJ^Talk 23:29, 18 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP

The article is more suitable for a PC magazine than an encyclopedia, and here I do not mean due to its lack of sources or inappropriate tone. Any relevant info, if any, should be placed in the appropriate article, as, like I've said before, the subject of the article is more suitable for a magazine than an encyclopedia. This is not only for this article, but for many others of the same 'nature'. diego_pmc (talk) 11:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. I really don't see the point of this article. Ignoring all the opinions, all that is left is a collection of miscellaneous facts about the operating systems that can be found at their respective articles. Rilak (talk) 12:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Weak delete and possible merge: This subject has been written on by many sources but there are two problems. Firstly, it is poorly referenced leading to a suspicion of OR. The second problem is that any comparison between two things involves a choice of which two things to compare which is more or less arbitrary. We don't need or want hundreds of articles like Comparison of OS/2 and BeOS. It could be countered that comparing an OS to its predecessor version is worthwhile but that seems to be core content for its article, not a separate article. Provided it can be referenced, some of the content here could be merged into Windows Vista. --DanielRigal (talk) 17:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - it just the sort of useful article that an encyclopedia should contain. It is a sufficiently large and separate subject that it should be split off from the Vista and XP articles. That the article might be poorly written is not grounds for its deletion, only its rewriting. This is hardly a comparison of two arbitrary operating systems as Comparison of OS/2 and BeOS would be - these are the most widely used desktop operating systems and one is the successor of the other. There are other articles of a similar sort which I have personally found useful (and so others probably have too since I am not unusual), for example Comparison of Linux distributions and Comparison of BSD operating systems and so it is likely that this one is also useful. Jll (talk) 09:54, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree it might proove useful to some people, but that's not the point. and as I've said the reason I think it should be deleted is not because of its quality, but its nature. An encyclopedia's scope, and especially Wikipedia's is not to compare things related to each other, but just present each product separately in an encyclopedic manner, instead of reviewing different aspects of one or more products, which should and is done by magazines. diego_pmc (talk) 11:56, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a precedent in most of the 140 or so articles in the Software comparisons category and its sub-categories, and the many more articles in the full Comparisons category; i.e. the encyclopedia's scope has already expanded to encompass this type of article. Jll (talk) 14:33, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Guess there's a problem then. If this one is deleted, then all should, but they are quite a lot. I still don't think this kind of articles have a place in an encyclopedia, but there's already too many of them now to remove... diego_pmc (talk) 15:04, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete / Merge parts I nominated this the first time it appeared, and it snuck back in *grin* My problem with this particular comparison is it's very point of view. Compare it to, for example, Comparison_of_BSD_operating_systems which is still rather wordy, but has far more factual comparisons. Comparison of Linux distributions is much more encyclopaedic to me. Now, if the article were a comparison of all windows versions, then that would be different; and that already exists, Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions. The features comparison is pretty weak in the article, it's more a list of what's new in Vista, and could be happily contained in the Vista article. --Blowdart | ^talk 16:05, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Software-related deletion discussions. -- Fabrictramp | talk to me 20:48, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - Take a look at Windows vs. Linux. This article is well-referenced, accurate and neutral, despite the fact that Win and Linux have fans who hate the other O.S. I strongly believe this article has potential. 1() (talk) 08:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, per Jll and 1()... Seems both adequately encyclopedic and useful to me. I don't really see the point of this nomination. Fdp (talk) 10:18, 12 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep appropriate comparison article of notable products. It's appropriate to do this pairing, for they are the two present alternatives. DGG (talk) 06:47, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Keep well sourced, encyclopedic, notability established by number of third party comparisons. I have updated the article to convert external links to in-line references. Gandalf61 (talk) 10:07, 17 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.