I have not noticed animosity against Times New Roman or Arial. They maybe over used by some people but they are useful fonts.

Sure it's possible. That would result in a lot more people downloading TeX Gyre Termes and TeX Gyre Heros and other such typefaces, though.

Why penalize the computer-illiterate?

John Savard

There's a common dislike of Arial among graphic designers who, rightly or wrongly, view it as Microsoft's tasteless embrace of a Helvetica substitute. I doubt that the general public notices or cares about this issue.

The bigger problem might be that many computer users have come to regard both Arial and Times New Roman as the ordinary, commonplace, colorless typefaces that are chosen by those whose lack of imagination prevents them from picking something else. I suspect this fate would have befallen any typefaces that Microsoft chose as the default, go-to serif and sans serif fonts.

Microsoft has no reason to remove them from Windows and plenty of reasons to keep them. As you mentioned, they're popular. There are also billions of office memos, forms and other documents already set in these typefaces. Removing Arial and Times New Roman from Windows would likely cause mass hysteria in office cubicles around the world. Comic Sans would become the new default and civilization as we know it would end.

Much of the general public doesn't care about this issue, and many businesses use these fonts too. Microsoft would be nuts to remove them. People who don't like them can choose to use other fonts.

There's a trend among avant-garde-ish graphic designers now of JUST using Arial and Times New Roman. I guess as a counterreaction to the explosive increase in the amount of fonts, it no longer being a special thing to have a unique typeface in your publication.

e.g. most of: http://www.europaeuropa.nu/svepdf/europaeuropa66sid.pdf

Removing Arial and Times New Roman from Windows would likely cause mass hysteria in office cubicles around the world. Comic Sans would become the new default and civilization as we know it would end.

Excellent analysis. Thank you.

it no longer being a special thing to have a unique typeface in your publication.

Right. That is why I have chosen TNR for my thesis. For the same reason you mentioned. People might thing I am just one of many who sticks to those "default' fonts, while I actually made an informed decision.

Perhaps this is the font worl'd version of normcore?

Times New Roman is a classic font, handsome, eminently legible and especially suitable for small print and economy of space. I wouldn't follow fads in this regard. Arial isn't beautiful, but it's used a lot on the web and therefore needed to render pages as they're created.

That said, there are faces ( but not those two ) I've removed from active duty to make room for imports.

Yes. And almost every university in the US and the UK demand theses and dissertations to be set in Times New Roman. So removing Times New Roman would cause a lot of discontent.

There are faces ( but not those two ) I've removed from active duty to make room for imports

May I ask you which fonts you removed?