I dislike that the author called using a font other than CM "advanced". Since the mid-90s, it's been just \usepackage{fontname} in the header to change the set

I dislike that the author called using a font other than CM "advanced". Since the mid-90s, it's been just \usepackage{fontname} in the header to change the set of base fonts to some other combination that looks good together. Yes, you need to learn to do that, but it's nothing compared to all the boilerplate you need to get a basic LaTeX document working.