Now if you use a high-resolution monitor and print-optimized fonts, MacOS will look better. If you use a low-resolution monitor and screen-optimized fonts, Windows will look better. Problem is, most designers come from print and use expensive Mac gear, so they are designing for a minority, their peers, not their users.
This can't still be true. No one comes from print anymore.
It is. The real problem is that a large number of designers like to have a pixel-perfect experience (which on print doesn't really matter as they know what paper will that publication use).
I think macOS will always be optimised for the best experience. Even if that means sub par XP if you don’t go all in on money.
I’d actually be interested in learning more about the rendering vs say windows if you have a source.
It is probably better to say that Apple will design for their intended market. I was using Apple products long before HiDPI was a thing and was never particularly happy with the fuzzy fonts under Mac OS X. While that may be acceptable when designing for print, since accuracy is more important, it is an annoyance in many other circumstances.
On hi-def monitors and laser-printed page, it is lovely both to read and to look at.
I mean, 4K (3840×2160) 23" displays nowadays start at $300, so if you’re still on hundred-buck 1920x1080 then you’re only getting what you paid for.
Going to all hi-def displays is the single best investment I ever made as a professional programmer, reading and writing text on screens daily.
In my recollection (and it's been a few years since I used a Linux GUI) Linux was the one with dodgy font rendering.
To me, fonts indeed look blurry on macOS and weird on Windows. Screenshots from Windows with colored pixels particularly don't look good to me. Though after having seen screens of people using Windows 10, it seems they changed whatever I really didn't like about font rendering on Windows.
I still like font rendering on GNU/Linux (and Android) better it is correctly configured, which it is on widespread distributions with widespread desktop environments (I use a QHD screen). But it could be out of habit. On some configurations, kerning is bad though.