> > Also, they knocked linux for having bad fonts when web surfing. But at > > sourceforge.net there's a way to get microsoft's fonts. Just search for > > fonts and it should be near the top. > They're absolutely right. Out of the box, Linux sucks for a web surfer > compared to Windows. The user is forced to go through some extra steps > just to get fonts that make a web site look decent. Should a user who > just picked up a copy of Red Hat Linux at the local CompUSA have to go > to Sourceforge and search for fonts just to display his favorite web > site properly? I'll argue that they should not. I'll also support the > argument that it's not completely Red Hat's fault - part of the problem > lies in the fact that we're dealing with free software and nobody wants > to pay to license fonts, and (a larger) part of the problem is web sites > that are designed for IE and nothing else. > -- > Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
Web surfing fonts are not the only turnkey non-geek user challenge when one buys RedHat, Mandrake, or SuSE off the shelf -- all have show-stopper, or near show-stopper, flaws that scare newbie non-geek users away. (hardware incompatibilities, apps that don't save settings even when "told" to, the absence of very common utilities and apps (esp. re. the handling of multimedia). I have read all of the reasons, that does not change the reality for the non-geek user. That said, the immediate case of proprietary Web site coding and incompatible font collections seems to be pretty readily addressed. 1. Proprietary Web coding: When such a Web site is opened the RH user should receive a pop-up that labels the site defective and recommends an E-mail to the site Webmaster. An automatic E-mail to some central site that lists such defective Web sites and that dispatches a short list of recommendations to Webmasters to fix their sites should also be built in. 2. Can RedHat (and others) automatically ID proprietary fonts in use, trigger a background E-mail to a "defective" Web site listing (as above) and then automatically substitute a non-proprietary font that is close enough to make the Web site look OK to the user? doc > -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
