The Great Debate: Floyd or Zeppelin?

[GeneralHankerchief]

Can't be bothered to find that "back to topic" smiley.

That said, both have merits. Zeppelin never played a bad song (as compared to Floyd with their stuff from Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother), but IMHO Floyd also wrote more good ones.

Singer: Floyd was just all over the place with this. First they had Barrett, then Gilmour/Waters, completely Waters, then completely Gilmour. They even got Roy Harper to sing on Have a Cigar. Robert Plant was consistently Zeppelin's vocalist, and better than any of 'em on Floyd.
Edge: Zeppelin

Guitarist: Apples and oranges, as Beirut said earlier. Page is Page and Gilmour is Gilmour. But if anyone says that Page is more hard rockin', let me point you to Dogs.
Edge: even

Auxilary: John Paul Jones is a good keyboardist. But this is where Floyd and Rick Wright shine (on?).
Edge: Floyd

Percussion: Bonham. Mason is decent but just can't hold his own against Zep's drummer.
Edge: Zeppelin

Writing: Zep had some pretty cool stuff in there, like Ramble On and The Battle of Evermore. But mostly, when you come down to it, they were always a blues-related band that expanded a little bit later on in their career. Floyd, with Syd and Waters and (gah!) Gilmour were all over the map.
Edge: Floyd

So it's 2.5 to 2.5. I like Floyd better, so I'm giving the final edge to them.