Norbert Tretkowski (of backports.org fame) claimed that antialiased fonts just look blurry

.

I have to disagree, as does Daniel Silverstone. Antialiased fonts are much nicer on my screen.

Having had the discussion whether AA fonts are good or not a couple of times I think it is a matter of taste (and maybe the quality of your display).

I like my fonts to have smooth curves; if you configure your fonts properly horizontal or vertical edges should still be dead-sharp. Also my display has

130 dpi which enables me to read a typical paper without scrolling, but only with AA enabled. Its almost 1:1 then, being around 24cm.

I also like Subpixel-Antialiasing. I was kind of surprised, since some people really notice the slight color abberations this gives you - I don’t with most fonts. But this depends a lot onto hinting. Do enable hinting, even when there used to be some patent problems around that IIRC!

Daniel Silverstone said that he hasn’t seen a distribution which managed to get AA fonts right for all systems. I don’t understand why this can be the case - there is not much you can do wrong with AA except choosing bad fonts, or enabling the wrong subpixel antialiasing.