[X4U] OSX and font clutter

[Steve Self]

I have just finished
1 - backup, erase, clean install to 10.4.1 Ruined by moving ONLY the  
fonts that were ok to move.
2 - Archive and install, then used Suitcase X to manage SYS fonts,   
ruined such that Mail and Finder corrupted...
3 - Archive and install AND use Suitcase with auto-activation off and  
no management of SYS fonts - tho why I should even use it this way,  
crippled, is questionable.

All these installations were done with the option of NOT INSTALLING  
the foreign fonts and languages, yet they still appear.

So WHY do we all have to look at a font menus that ABSOLUTELY suck?!  
There are now 15 fonts listed in my font menus that I WILL NEVER USE.  
Yet if I try and close/manage/hide them I end up corrupting the  
system. And this is if I do it VERY CAREFULLY minding all the  
REQUIRED FONTS. And then I have to sort thru these every time I want  
to do a project.

This is - for me - a crime of neglect. I love OSX but the font  
situation is extremely f**ked. As a designer I need to activated and  
use many different fonts, and I like to keep a stable of 20 or so  
constantly on. Yet I always have to sort thru the default fonts and  
foreign fonts to see and select useable fonts.

Why can't we simply HIDE all the weird ones, foreign ones and  
required ugly ones?

Is Suitcase simply not that good at working in Tiger and OSX? It's  
duplicate font manager sucks. And many of my supposedly clean fonts  
will not preview. I have cleaned and worked this issue until I am  
simply too tired of Suitcase.

Don't even get me started with OpenType and dfont formats that work  
in some apps and not in others. CRIMINAL!

Oh, and read the knowledge-base and pdf files available online about  
font management? Nearly all of these are incomplete and do not list  
one or two REQUIRED fonts, the moving of which incapacitates iCal or  
AddressBook. I have not found accuracy anywhere.

Does anyone have a reliable font management system that is not a full  
time job?

These guys are idiots, designing such incompatible fonts and arcane  
management methods. I know we may be in transition, but geeze this  
sucks.

Steve