Liberation Sans

by Red Hat

Liberation Sans is a clean, neutral grotesque sans-serif commissioned by Red Hat as a metrically compatible alternative to Arial, meaning it can swap in without reflowing existing documents. The letterforms are straightforward and professional, with no real personality to speak of, which is exactly the point. It works reliably across body text, headlines, and UI, and its open-source licensing has made it a quiet workhorse in Linux environments and beyond.