Greetings Eric,
I have been using Linux sporadically since 1994. I currently have it installed as a dual boot OS on my primary development machine and my laptop. The only complaint I have that I have never been able to solve, and what keeps me going back to Windows is I have never been able to get good graphic resolution, particularly graphically displayed text. e.g., in Netscape, StarOffice etc. Do you have any comments or tips on this issue?
Thanks,
Peter Cooke
Peter,
Thanks for writing. I’m actually passing along the response to this question to Jonathan Ungar, a new Contributing Editor at IThell.com. I think you will find his answer helpful.
Eric Svetcov
Peter,
When you say you've been unable to get good graphic resolution, I'm assuming that you have the same color depth (bits per pixel - 16, 24, 32) and screen resolution (1024 x 768, 1152 x 870, etc.) set up under Linux as you do under Windows on the same machine. (If X is set up to do 8bpp of course it's going to look much worse than Windows at 16bpp or higher).
I suspect that the problem you're having is not with the display of graphic images but instead almost soley pertains to font rendering...
Font rendering under X has always been an annoyance, as a result of being rather archaic - X having been originally designed to be a distributable GUI application server, not a desktop publishing environment like Windows (or another OS designed by a Cupertino, CA based company, which Microsoft may or may not have borrowed a few ideas from in the past).
Most, if not all, distributions of Linux include the XFree86(www.xfree86.org) version of the X Windowing system (correctly referred to as X, incorrectly referred to as "X Windows". I always feel compelled to make this point even though no-one ever listens, and it's probably not really that important...) The fonts included with XFree86 are a rather motley assortment of bitmap fonts, some of which seem to work okay onscreen and some of which look absolutely horrible, even unreadable, particularly when scaled from their default point sizes. While there are alternatives to XFree, such as the commercial X servers from Xi Graphics (www.xig.com) and Metro Link((www.metrolink.com), I don't know whether they are better with regards to font rendering or not, as I've never used them.
In recent years the development of TrueType font rendering engine(s) for Linux has made great progress towards getting things to look prettier on screen under X, but getting things set up properly can be a real exercise in frustration.
So anyway, in doing some quick web research to check a couple of points, I discovered that the Linux Documentation Project (www.linuxdoc.org) now includes a complete set of instructions for, humorously, "XFree86 Font De-Uglification" by Doug Holland. This pretty much covers the issue in depth and proves a lot of helpful configuration suggestions to improve the looks of X:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/FDU
And I have to tell you, I'm really glad I found this. So thanks for asking the question... I have to go reconfigure my X server now. :-)
Jonathan Ungar