Subpixel font rendering for FC13 (Ubuntu Patches)

[anshuljain]

Hi all,
Tried out the latest Fedora 13 release for kicks, and seem to be liking it so far I'm an openSUSE user and created some RPMs (on openSUSE) for myself which have the Ubuntu font rendering patches in them. I played around with the Fedora RPMs and managed to patch freetype-freeworld, cairo, fontconfig and Xft to achieve subpixel hinting on par with Ubuntu

I wanted to share them with the Fedora community, if interested. Is there any place like an openSUSE Build Service for Fedora where I can host them...or maybe some community site that can host them? A screenshot of my desktop:-



I'm using Calibri font with slight hinting, 96 dpi and Xft filter set to hintslight.

-Anshul

[marvin_ita]

Hello,
read the guidelines at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/Join

Note that if your package has a license not compatible with fedora guidelines you can use another package submission system like rpmfusion.

Mattia

[leigh123linux]

Try setting up a dropbox repo.

https://www.dropbox.com/home

[Zanpactou]

Originally Posted by anshuljain

Hi all,
Tried out the latest Fedora 13 release for kicks, and seem to be liking it so far I'm an openSUSE user and created some RPMs (on openSUSE) for myself which have the Ubuntu font rendering patches in them. I played around with the Fedora RPMs and managed to patch freetype-freeworld, cairo, fontconfig and Xft to achieve subpixel hinting on par with Ubuntu

Great but there is a very good reason why Fedora doesn't do that.
The technology is patented. Distributing software which does that in countries which recognise software patents requires a license from the patent holder.
Patent licensing costs money.

Redistribute it at your own risk.

Thanks,
Zanpactou

[anshuljain]

Originally Posted by Zanpactou

Great but there is a very good reason why Fedora doesn't do that.
The technology is patented. Distributing software which does that in countries which recognise software patents requires a license from the patent holder.
Patent licensing costs money.

Redistribute it at your own risk.

Thanks,
Zanpactou

Thanks, I'm aware of the history behind these patches. Software patents are not applicable in my country- India. Users are advised to check for their countries before installing these RPMS.

I'll probably setup a dropbox repo and host it there sometime soon. I have built only 32-bit RPMs and not 64-bit as I do not have access to a 64-bit system. However, I'll put the SRPMs and interested users can rebuild it themselves.

Edit: The theme in the screenshot is the Shiki Brave theme with an SVN version of the murrine engine+ubuntu lucid patch. I wont be able to put the SRPMS today, only the 32-bit RPMS.

[brebs]

Originally Posted by anshuljain

advised to check for their countries

IMO, users couldn't care less about the potential patent issues (which Ubuntu of course find acceptable) - they want decent-looking fonts, dammit

Obligatory links: huge Gentoo fonts thread and my old Fedora 9 thread.

[pete_1967]

Originally Posted by brebs

IMO, users couldn't care less about the potential patent issues (which Ubuntu of course find acceptable) - they want decent-looking fonts, dammit

Tell that to the patent holder company's lawyers, I'm sure they understand and drop all demands, threats and charges against you, the distributor of their patented technology.

[brebs]

OMG, it's MS knocking on my front door! I know it's MS because they're wearing black jeather jackets and jackboots. Quick, delete all my patented files!

Yeah, right

Notice that MS hasn't sued Ubuntu. It doesn't look like Ubuntu has ever been sued for anything. I think patent holders are roughly 2.5 zillion times more likely to go after Ubuntu, rather than me and my custom-patched builds. I suppose I could say "sorry" and offer them half a Smartie as full and final payment for any infringement, if they insisted.


Users are not distributors. I was talking about *users*.

Edit: And just to add more fuel to the patent-paranoia fire, there's this interesting fedora-devel-list post.
Edit2: Maybe MS haven't sued, because they would expect to lose ("prior art" or whatever-it's-called, in the Apple II).

[KStorm]

Keep us posted; the screenshot looks great.

[bob]

Brebs, it's time you had a fresh look at the Posting Rules. Insults aren't going to be tolerated. Thread Closed.

[Dan]

Warning one. (of one)

This stops here.

Okey dokey! I see someone else got to the lock before I did. Aha! I see Bob got here whilst I was typing.