RedHat released recently a typographic font family to replace some fonts licensed by Microsoft. Nowadays free software users can use Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New and other fonts through the corefonts package, but its license doesn’t allow users to modify the fonts.
We have have many free TrueType fonts, such as Bitstream Vera, but Liberation fonts dimensions would be identical to the Microsoft fonts. According to RedHat, a document created with the Microsoft fonts could be displayed without distortion using the Liberation typographic family. The RedHat fonts are distributed under the GPL license with an exception permitting its inclusion in documents distributed under other licenses. (Updated: see the fonts side-by-side.)
RedHat informs the initial release is “completely functional”, though without subpixel hinting, which is necessary for better visualization in extreme dimensions. Personally, I downloaded and previewed the fonts in various sizes, without missing the resource (on a common video monitor). Anyway, RedHat promised a second release at the end of the year, including subpixel hinting.
The fonts are available for download here.
References: RedHat, BrOffice.org, NotíciasLinux.com, Barrapunto.com.