When comparing Liberation Mono vs Native, the Slant community recommends Liberation Mono for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” Liberation Mono is ranked 17th while Native is ranked 79th. The most important reason people chose Liberation Mono is:
Liberation Mono works well with hinting on high-resolution displays.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very readable
Liberation Mono works well with hinting on high-resolution displays.
Pro As of 2023: Second Best screen-modern drop-in replacement for MT Courier New
Metric-compatible with Monotype Courier New, dot 0 (zero), modern non-Kettler lowercase l (ell), 660+ glyphs, OFL-1.1 license
Pro Compact line height
Just like Courier New (the metrics of which this font emulates), its line height isn't too big, which results in more lines on the screen, compared to Consolas and several other more popular fonts.

Pro Has Bold typeface
Pro Readable
Pro Consistent character widths between the italics and weights
Within Native's weights and styles, each character occupies 580 points of space. This ensures code does not become misaligned if a developer prefers certain callouts in a different style.
Pro The regular weight is free for Desktop, Web, and App Licensing
The regular weight can be picked up free of charge on MyFonts or Fort Foundry’s site.
Pro No alignment issues when switching between styles
Pro Italics are given a lot of differentiation
Cons
Con Difference between "0" and "O" isn't clear
It can be difficult to tell the difference between the number "0" and the letter "O". However, the Fedora Project has a slightly altered version of Liberation Mono that fixes this with a dotted zero.
Con Liberation fonts are ugly
Con Not FREE
Not free and hard to find.
