When I look at a Linux desktop and a Windows desktop, I always have a hard time reading any text on the windows one. I had no clue why this was or how to explain this to a windows user. I do get used again to the windows one, but switching fron lin to win always nearly hurts my eyes.
The problem is the anti-aliasing. Anti-Aliassing a bit hard to really explain, but luckilly, wikipedia has a great image that wil perfectly convey the difference.
In an attempt to word it – Anti-Aliasing is the practice of attempting to solve pixelated lines looking like a staircase by adding specific differently colored pixels to cheat the eye into thinking it Is a smooth line.
And Windows (ClearType) Sucks at this, compared to how good Linux (X11’s Subpixel Rendering) is at this. Now, simply put, the screenshots!
You will only see the difference in full view, the thumbnails, being smaller, will not convey the point correctly! You will find the linux example fuzzy compared to the MS one. This however does not matter in the point that Im trying to make, except if you’re one of the rare people who like to stare at their computer screen from several meters away.
How it looks in Linux
How it looks in Windows (screenshot taken on a freshly installed Windows box, during the first execution of IE)
Cant help feeling the Windows one looks very blocky and is INCREDIBLY hard to read to me. I try, I squint and I finally just think “reading text on windows Sucks!”
So thats my point, thats the proof and thats the reason for it all! Hooray for Anti-Aliasing and Hooray for being able to point people who dont get what I mean to this page! 🙂 I hope you were able to read this in a properly aliased interface!
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