I believe you're correct: OS X doesn't employ hinting at all, whereas Ubuntu does by default. Indeed, if you set hinting to "None" on Ubuntu (this is how my com

I believe you're correct: OS X doesn't employ hinting at all, whereas Ubuntu does by default. Indeed, if you set hinting to "None" on Ubuntu (this is how my computers are configured), you get very similar results to OS X. I think it's largely a matter of preference: I prefer anti-aliased letters of the right shape, and find the distorted grid-fitted letterforms of Windows almost unbearably ugly, yet others complain about the "fuzzy" fonts on OS X. Luckily, I use a system that lets me choose!