That results in a different usability problem. Installed fonts are very nonstandard.
At the moment I happen to be on an up-to-date version of Windows 7 and here's what it looks like:
*edit: though it appears to render properly on Debian
At the moment I happen to be on an up-to-date version of Windows 7 and here's what it looks like:
*edit: though it appears to render properly on Debian
And some users change their default font and don't even use installed fonts and override preferences because they're in charge of how things display on their computer.
I use Sofia-Pro and this is what I see: http://i.imgur.com/8PoNfdJ.png
Assuming that it is using font substitution (as it should be whether or not you’ve chosen Sofia Pro as your browser’s default sans-serif font… unless you’ve also changed some other settings too), then the reason those characters show up as question marks is because you don’t have any fonts installed containing glyphs for those characters. (I’d recommend Everson Mono² or Symbola³).
――――――
¹ — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_substitution
² — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everson_Mono
³ — https://web.archive.org/web/20150625020428/http://users.teil...
Yes, actually. The only two fonts my browser is permitted to use are Sofia Pro and Meiryo. My point being nothing is wrong with alphanumeric representations of hexadecimal. Short of glyph fonts like Webdings, every font supports alphanumerics - even CJK fonts.
Some users change settings - heavily so. The "safest default" should be the assumption. Changing something that works for most people to work only for "people with a proper supporting font installed" is breaking the web as far as any devs should be concerned.
(though interestingly when I open this page up with links2 on my vps, accessed through a terminal on the iphone, which is using a monospace font... it renders fine.. it doesn't render fine if I see the same thing with Putty on the Win8 computer. I guess fonts support in general on Win is bad)
Edit: Not sure why all the downvotes, I honestly don't see how "up to date Windows 7" is an oxymoron.
I'll address this point, the sibling comment already addressed the other point (it wasn't meant as a criticism, by the way).
It's true that Windows 7 still get updates. However, these are mostly security updates, or bugfixes. We don't expect it to get new features. In this case, unicode font rendering. It is likely (but not guaranteed) that a user running Windows 10 would see a much better result.
Why any sane individual willingly chooses windows 10 is beyond me.
edit: Can't reply, but turning off the "phone home features" doesn't actually turn them off. It still phones home and you still get assigned an advertising ID. Sure, I could block it at the firewall potentially, but this is about taking an ideological stance.
Also, the settings in Win 10 allow you to turn off a lot of the phone home type stuff. Other than that, my opinion is that 10 mostly feels like a more polished 7.
Actually, it renders perfectly on Edge; so the problem is probably with Google Chrome.
In regards to why I think you may being downvoted:
> reads like an oxymoron
The parent was being a bit facetious. We all know they are different operating systems. But it's far less likely that an operating system that no longer receives "feature" updates would be up-to-date on its fonts.
In any case, an oxymoron is (per Google):
> a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ).
Which I think the parent accurately described. (It's apparently contradictory, but has meaning.)