Comment 3 for bug 652154

It's also worth remembering that these fonts *will* be used beyond Ubuntu. They are free and therefore Windows and Mac communities are going to access them with clear expections in regards to what fonts should support - and 'fi' 'fl' is definitely high on the list within the design community. Populating the fonts with different glyphs on these positions is support suicide and will make the fonts useless to a professional design community.

Whilst in the PUA, the glyphs have been on these positions for so long they are a de-facto standard. We also need to create the fonts to build compatibility with other fonts available on other systems, notably Arial, TNR, Verdana et al. So, we are happy that this is a "won't fix" position.