Comment by ahartmetz

Subpixel rendering is configurable. Some algorithms are patented, but the patents have expired. I'm not sure if the "good" algorithms have made it to all corners of computing. I use latest Kubuntu, slight hinting and subpixel rendering. It looks very good to me.

On my rarely used Windows partition, I have used ClearType Tuner (name?) to set up ClearType to my preferences. The results are still somewhat grainy and thin, but that's a general property of Windows font rendering.