Back when flat-panel displays first became mainstream, Microsoft and Apple took different directions as to how to utilize subpixel rendering. Microsoft chose t

Back when flat-panel displays first became mainstream, Microsoft and Apple took different directions as to how to utilize subpixel rendering. Microsoft chose to align strokes as close as possible to pixel boundaries for a sharp, crisp look even if it meant distorting the shape of the glyphs. Apple on the other hand decided to render fonts as close as possible to their original shapes even if it caused some blurriness around pixel boundaries. Linux made its own flavor of both options, and left it to the user to decide which one they wanted. The default on many distros is closer to the Windows look, though. So if you are used to the Windows look, you will probably prefer the default option than the tweaked-to-look-like-Mac option.