[recoiledsnake]

I agree... there's a jarring effect everytime I run Gnome. Especially due to the fonts and the excessive spacing(on things like buttons) around text.. feeling like a lot of screen space wasted without gaining anything in return.

Maybe I am too used to the other OSes but font rendering always seem weird. Eg. See the screenshot here http://lh5.ggpht.com/mihaiolimpiu/SQh2WqXOQaI/AAAAAAAAASQ/mH...

The fonts seem stretched horizontally. I always get the feeling, even in the new versions. Maybe it's just me. As a sidenote see how the column headings are cut off in the Deluge windows.

I was told a few years ago that this was because of patents on TrueType fonts etc and copyrighted fonts. Is this still the case?

[frou_dh]

That entire thing just looks woeful to me. The fonts, the soulless icons, the striking horizontal lines everywhere, the way the File Browser is swimming in empty space yet the icons and search field at the top of the screen are jammed in and scraping the edges.

"What on earth are you talking about? That looks fine" is a valid reply to my finickiness, and I'm a bit jealous of that, because being like this pretty much limits me to OS X and Apple's whims.