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Comment by hiram112 | Hacker News Reader

Linux on the desktop is still full of issues that were solved by Windows and Mac a decade ago. Fonts still look like crap (Ubuntu is an exception), and even with patches there are still problems with Java, old GTK libs, etc.

I could care less about games, MS Office, a d a lot of other things that are deal breakers for some, but I have tried Linux on the desktop and it is still lacking.

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I agree that Linux on the desktop has issues but fonts isn't one of them. Linux has had excellent open-source fonts and font rendering for a long time.

My experience with fonts is the opposite; in Win 7 the letters are always tattered and manifest some color distortions around the letter edges; no matter what I do with Cleartype settings, both in browser and other programs such as Outlook. In Debian with Xfce or Gnome, the letters look much better, smoother and almost no color distortions apparent. I do not know if it is because of different font or different rendering (hinting) algorithm, but I never saw text representation on Windows be as good as on my Debian.

I'm right there with you, I've never had good luck with fonts on Linux. They always look fuzzy, instead of crisp and sharp like on OSX

> Fonts still look like crap (Ubuntu is an exception)

You can change|install fonts on linux.

> and even with patches there are still problems with Java, old GTK libs, etc

What kind of problems?

> but I have tried Linux on the desktop and it is still lacking.

Can you tell us what do you miss?

My latest foray involved Infinality patches on Fedora 23. Honestly, with the exception of Ubuntu, this is the best I've ever gotten with Linux. I think part of this is due to Google having released a lot of great fonts with open licenses (droid mono, e.g.). But still, they just aren't as good as Windows 7. And it's not because I'm just used to Windows. I rarely use Macs, but when I do, I'm more than happy with the fonts (they're probably better than Windows). In both, the display and sizes are consistent in all apps, but Linux has so many different toolkits that don't respect the default - Java, VLC, Chrome, etc. - basically like 50% of the apps I'm using most of the day.

My latest try with running Fedora 23 on my laptop outside of the VM seemed okay... until a recent Kernel / X update turned it into a hot mess - fan constantly running, processor overheating warnings in the logs, etc. Maybe it was my NVidia card or something. The problem is that I have a Dell Precision which is one of THE few models (along with Thinkpads) that are well supported on Linux.

But I just don't have time to deal with these things anymore. If Windows 10 doesn't clean up its act, I'll probably be moving to a MBP, even though I haven't had good luck with them in the past.

Honestly, I'm at the point where I'd pay serious money to RedHat or some other company (maybe Dell or Lenovo) to put out a well supported laptop / Linux combo: nice fonts, supported discrete video, working ACPI, upgradable parts, and no spying or trying to monetize the OS user nor dumbing down the interface a la Apple and MS.

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