[ken]

Don't some of these browsers display a best-approximation font, while the actual font file is downloading, while others display no text until the font file is available? That seems like an awfully big distinction which is omitted here.

[patrickmeenan]

It is more site-dependent than browser dependent but by default (unless the dev overrides) most browsers will leave the text blank for 3 seconds after the font is discovered before falling back. In most (all?) of the cases in the blog post, the actual font loading is within that 3-second window, the issue is that the layout-blocking content (preventing the browser from discovering the font) is what is slow.