On 10/4/05, Felix Miata <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've installed a lot of Linux distros, and surprisingly few install Vera > by default, though they usually include them on the installation media.
Weird. I've not had a Linux install anytime in the past couple of years that didn't install the Bitstream fonts. I have been sticking mostly to "mainstream" distributions, though (see below for a question about that). > What I hope you meant to suggest was 'Verdana, "Bitstream Vera Sans", > "Luxi Sans", sans-serif'. I've really only seen Luxi Sans on Red Hat-derived distributions; Debian-based systems often don't include it (for example, the laptop I'm typing on, running Ubuntu, doesn't have Luxi Sans). Nimbus Sans is a bit more common. > It wouldn't hurt to include 'lucida sans unicode' just to be safe from > the old W9x lucida sans italic, unless you expect normal line-heights, > which you won't get from lucida sans unicode on doze unless you > explicitly set line-height for it. Good point. As for falling back to Lucida Sans, I do it because it's a known quantity; it's universal enough that it usually avoids the whims of the system-default sans-serif and thus provides a last-resort consistency, but at the same time its ugliness is usually avoided by the fact that careful font selection will almost always match something else first. > FWIW, FC4 apparently ships without Helvetica, something I've never > noticed on any Linux before. Ubuntu Hoary (haven't yet tried the Breezy preview release) ships Helmet, which is a reasonable clone, but not Helvetica, and I believe Fedora does the same. While I'm not certain exactly why that was changed, I've always assumed that it has something to do with licensing of the Helvetica name. Out of curiosity, which distributions do you feel constitute a solid "baseline" for Linux compatibility? Just as IE/Win, Firefox, Safari and Opera represent a good test base for cross-browser compatibility, I've been working with Fedora, Ubuntu, SuSE and Mandrake as a solid base for cross-distribution compatibility. -- "May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house." -- George Carlin ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
