Why use a font server?

[Morten Brix Pedersen <morten@wtf.dk>]

Hi all,

The default for XFree in Debian is to use a font server. My question is
why?

I'm not an expert or anything, but I read somewhere that font servers
were good to remove the load from many machines; that is - if many
machines used the same font server.

I believe most people who use XFree on Debian use it on single-user
systems, and the font server is only another hurdle to setup.

The first thing I do when I have installed XFree4, is to comment out the
font server, remove it and load the freetype module. This gives me great
support for TrueType fonts and I only need to concentrate on
XF86Config-4 when setting up this machine.

Sorry if this is a FAQ, but I have wondered about this for a long time.

There may be other advantages with font servers which I have
overlooked.

   - Morten.