SL Fonts (was: [sldev] 1.21.2 Artwork pack is missing fonts?)

[alissa_sabre at yahoo.co.jp]

Excuse me for hijacking the thread, but...

> The fonts should not be in the artwork directory because they are
> non-free and not artwork.

> The fonts are in the libs package (where they
> always were) and in fact are the only thing left in the libs package now.

Why does Linden SL viewer come with the fonts?  (As opposed to using
platforms' standard fonts.)

I know typical games have their own fonts, but SL is not a game, and
I don't think major reasons for the games apply to SL.  On the other
hands, I have several downsides of the current SL fonts.

* They are very incomplete in glyph coverage.
* There is no guarantee the design of SL fonts matches with the
  fallback fonts.
* Pango has some difficulties to handle those fonts.  (Yes, this
  is my main concern.  No, pango adaptation in SL viewer is still on a
  long way.)

and,

* The license of the fonts makes source distribution somewhat
  complicated.  (This issue is from the original thread.)

What happens if we completely discard the font files from the SL
distribution and let the viewer use platforms' standard fonts?

    Alissa Sabre
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