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Re: Bug#423683: msttcorefonts: Windows Vista Fonts available legally for free



On Mon, May 14, 2007 at 05:24:04PM +0200, Fabian Greffrath wrote:
> Am Montag, den 14.05.2007, 13:25 +0200 schrieb Thijs Kinkhorst:
> > I've reviewed the licence, and I'm afraid it's a bit more bothered than that 
> > of the ms core fonts for the web:  "You may use the software only to view and 
> > print files created with Microsoft Office software.  You may not use the 
> > software for any other purpose.". If I would include this into the 
> > msttcorefonts package this would severely limit the possibilities with these 
> > core fonts, that are currently free to be used for whatever purpose.

There's a similar thing, except without the usage restrictions: their
"Consolas" font.  And while the other Vista fonts are only so-so even
compared to ttf-dejavu, I have to admit that Consolas is an awesome terminal
font.  A whole deal better than DejaVu Mono Sans.  And in an ironic turn,
while on M$ it _needs_ ClearType (and thus LCD) to be usable, with FreeType
it's very good even on CRT.

There is a string attached, though -- but one of a different kind.  You need
to be a "licensed user of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005".  It does have a
gratis edition, but that's a 35MB download just to satisfy the license.
 
> Well, I see this point. How about a separate package, maybe
> 'ttf-vistafonts' or 'msvistacorefonts' which is in no way connected to
> the 'msttcorefonts' package and shows a debconf warning about the
> restrictions these fonts are subject to?

Yeah, viewing MS Office files is a tiny portion of what we do, so the
usability of that package would be really limited.  On the other hand,
coding using a monospaced font...

-- 
1KB		// Microsoft corollary to Hanlon's razor:
		//	Never attribute to stupidity what can be
		//	adequately explained by malice.



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