&gt; Linux and Windows default to strong hinting, and MacOS X uses only slight hinting, preferring accurate shapes to sharpness.<p>I know you already know these things, but for the sake of discussion (or other people).<p>Linux allows you configure hinting. It&#x27;s true that by default (depending on how you define default) you get no hinting, but no reasonable distribution that I know of has shipped with that default for the past 7 years. Quite the opposite in my experience. Linux fonts (thankfully) look more like OS X fonts than Windows fonts.<p>Unfortunately, this configuration usually happens in some Gnome&#x2F;Unity&#x2F;XFCE&#x2F;KDE configuration format, so if you want to use a better window manager with no DE, you sometimes have to recreate this from scratch, although, as someone who obsesses over font rendering and doesn&#x27;t like the DEs, this is easier now than in 2000.<p>And then you have Google Chrome who just ships with its own font rendering. Gah.