Pretty Fonts in Chrome with Linux

It's a bit incredible, but in 2012, some linux distros (like Fedora, or Kubuntu) still have trouble to have pretty fonts everywhere. I found a nice tip initially for Google Chrome but that seems to improve more than Chrome: create ~/.fonts.conf with the following:

[match target="font"]
    [edit name="autohint" mode="assign"]
      [bool]true[/bool]
    [/edit]
    [edit name="hinting" mode="assign"]
      [bool]true[/bool]
    [/edit]
    [edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"]
      [const]hintslight[/const]
    [/edit]
[/match]

replace [ and ] with brackets < and >

Update from 2013 - This can be done system wide, see http://chasethedevil.blogspot.com/2013/08/better-fonts-in-fedora-than-in-ubuntu.html

Pretty Fonts in Chrome with Linux

It's a bit incredible, but in 2012, some linux distros (like Fedora, or Kubuntu) still have trouble to have pretty fonts everywhere. I found a nice tip initially for Google Chrome but that seems to improve more than Chrome: create ~/.fonts.conf with the following:

[match target="font"]
    [edit name="autohint" mode="assign"]
      [bool]true[/bool]
    [/edit]
    [edit name="hinting" mode="assign"]
      [bool]true[/bool]
    [/edit]
    [edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"]
      [const]hintslight[/const]
    [/edit]
[/match]

replace [ and ] with brackets < and >

Update from 2013 - This can be done system wide, see http://chasethedevil.blogspot.com/2013/08/better-fonts-in-fedora-than-in-ubuntu.html

Fedora 17 vs Ubuntu 12.04

I had the bad idea to upgrade to the beta Ubuntu 12.10. Something awfully broke in the upgrade. After too much struggling with apt-get & dpkg, I decided to install Fedora 17.

Strangely Fedora feels much faster than Ubuntu 12.04 (the boot time especially). Yum seems also faster than apt-get, especially the update part. Also while the Unity dock is not bad (better than gnome shell dock), the Unity dash thing just makes me crazy, the gnome shell activities, while close, are much easier to use.

But it needs a bit more steps to install, although I had no problem to install nvidia drivers, Oracle 11g xe, Java, MP3, nice fonts, nice icons thanks to the guides here and there. SSD Trim instructions are the same (basically use "discard" instead of "default" in /etc/fstab). I have the most troubles with Oracle: somehow the start script does not work and I currently log in as "oracle" and start /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/config/scripts/startdb.sh from there (after having added the proper .bashrc for this user)

I even managed the peculiarities of my laptop a similar way as ubuntu: I want Nvidia card when plugged in to a monitor (to be able to use it) and Intel card when not (to be able to use the LCD screen). My solution is to use the boot screen (in reality one just need to restart X11): this amounted to add a "hdmi" in "/etc/grub.d/40_custom" and creating a link to "/etc/rc3.d/S10DriverSelect" the following script (a dirty hack):


#!/bin/sh
if grep -q hdmi /proc/cmdline
then
  if [ -d /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/nvidia ];
  then 
    cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.hdmi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    mv /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/nvidia /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/
  fi
else
  if [ -d /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia ];
  then
    cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    mv /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/
  fi
fi

Linux distros are really becoming closer in terms of configuration, LSB has made great progress.

Edit from November 29: After a few weeks, I noticed that the system was quite unstable unfortunately. As a result, I moved back to Ubuntu on my laptop. I am running OpenSuse on my home computer. 1 year later, I am back to Fedora 19, 20 on my desktop - no stability issue, I prefer Gnome over KDE.

Fedora 17 vs Ubuntu 12.04

I had the bad idea to upgrade to the beta Ubuntu 12.10. Something awfully broke in the upgrade. After too much struggling with apt-get & dpkg, I decided to install Fedora 17.

Strangely Fedora feels much faster than Ubuntu 12.04 (the boot time especially). Yum seems also faster than apt-get, especially the update part. Also while the Unity dock is not bad (better than gnome shell dock), the Unity dash thing just makes me crazy, the gnome shell activities, while close, are much easier to use.

But it needs a bit more steps to install, although I had no problem to install nvidia drivers, Oracle 11g xe, Java, MP3, nice fonts, nice icons thanks to the guides here and there. SSD Trim instructions are the same (basically use "discard" instead of "default" in /etc/fstab). I have the most troubles with Oracle: somehow the start script does not work and I currently log in as "oracle" and start /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/config/scripts/startdb.sh from there (after having added the proper .bashrc for this user)

I even managed the peculiarities of my laptop a similar way as ubuntu: I want Nvidia card when plugged in to a monitor (to be able to use it) and Intel card when not (to be able to use the LCD screen). My solution is to use the boot screen (in reality one just need to restart X11): this amounted to add a "hdmi" in "/etc/grub.d/40_custom" and creating a link to "/etc/rc3.d/S10DriverSelect" the following script (a dirty hack):


#!/bin/sh
if grep -q hdmi /proc/cmdline
then
  if [ -d /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/nvidia ];
  then 
    cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.hdmi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    mv /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/nvidia /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/
  fi
else
  if [ -d /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia ];
  then
    cp -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    mv /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia /usr/lib64/xorg/modules.bak/extensions/
  fi
fi

Linux distros are really becoming closer in terms of configuration, LSB has made great progress.

Edit from November 29: After a few weeks, I noticed that the system was quite unstable unfortunately. As a result, I moved back to Ubuntu on my laptop. I am running OpenSuse on my home computer. 1 year later, I am back to Fedora 19, 20 on my desktop - no stability issue, I prefer Gnome over KDE.

Binary Voting

How many reports have you had to fill up with a number of stars to choose? How much useless time is spent on figuring the this number just because it is always very ambiguous?

Some blogger wrote an interesting entry on Why I Hate Five Stars Reviews. Basically he advocates binary voting instead via like/dislike. Maybe a ternary system via like/dislike/don't care would be ok too.

One coworker used to advocate the same for a similar reason: people reading those reports only pay attention to the extremes: the 5 stars or the 0 stars. So if you want to have a voice, you need to express it via 5 or 0, nothing in between.

Binary Voting

How many reports have you had to fill up with a number of stars to choose? How much useless time is spent on figuring the this number just because it is always very ambiguous?

Some blogger wrote an interesting entry on Why I Hate Five Stars Reviews. Basically he advocates binary voting instead via like/dislike. Maybe a ternary system via like/dislike/don't care would be ok too.

One coworker used to advocate the same for a similar reason: people reading those reports only pay attention to the extremes: the 5 stars or the 0 stars. So if you want to have a voice, you need to express it via 5 or 0, nothing in between.