Have to say that Consolas is the best monospaced font (that supports a large swath of Unicode) for my terminal emulator. I've always taken a rather dim view of non-functional niceties but have been swayed by just how damn nice the terminal looks while programming in Vim using Consolas. Well worth the purchase so that I could use it on Linux.

Agreed. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Frutiger ripoff Segoe UI. I got tired so quickly of that font, and I barely even use Windows 8. You still see it all the time on other Microsoft branded stuff though, and all I can think is 'meh'.

A neutral font like Helvetica is a much better choice IMO.

My gnome-terminal seems to be using Source Code Pro from https://github.com/adobe/Source-Code-Pro at Semibold weight and 12 points, though I basically just fullscreen it and frequently resize up and down depending on requirements. In reality I probably mostly I use it at 14 or 16 points, on a black background of course.

compiz-fusion spins between desktop cube faces with ctrl+alt+arrow and a handy wacom tablet allow easy text selection, window placement and inkscape-driven thought-capture.

I'm very interested in striking a balance between a minimalist console and graphical thinking, and have become a big fan of tools like mscgen, graphviz, and inkscape.

Every time I use inkscape, default font selections irritate me to the point where I now generally the more tedious option of manually scribbling on the wacom tablet.

I like Constantia, by John Hudson. It has become my go-to font for screen reading, since it manages an almost-oldstyle feel without falling apart at current resolutions. MS did commission some good work for the C-series.

There's also Candara and Constantina.

I think they did a bang up job with them, especially Cambria (If I never saw Times again I'd be happy).