Comment 44 for bug 412195

@Arne: as you suggested in #29, I researched fontconfig configuration files. If I put the attached file in my home directory (as ~/.fonts.conf), then Firefox no longer tries to use the Wine Tahoma replacement when websites request it. I copied the syntax from an example at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration#Example_1

I disagree with your characterization of this bug. The original text is at the top of the page, but you say "The bug here was that the embedded bitmaps of Tahoma got used by default, where it's not desired." Those things are not equivalent. A better description is "The bug here is that Tahoma is installed and used *by the entire desktop*, where it's not desired."

The average user would expect:
1. Install "wine" or "wine1.2".
2. Run Windows applications.

Instead they experience:
1. Install "wine" or "wine1.2".
2. Run Windows applications.
3. The appearance of many websites in Firefox changes.

Even as an experienced user, #3 is not obviously related to the wine1.2 package. It is also not an advertised effect of wine1.2; the package description does not say, "Your web browser may start using the Tahoma replacement that Synaptic will install by default as a dependency of this package." Everyone commenting here, myself included, is surprised by this unintended effect of installing wine1.2.

Some clarification (from Scott, maybe) would help: does Wine use fontconfig in any way? If not, then it should be possible to apply the setting I am using system-wide, so that only Wine applications use the Tahoma replacement.