Linux equivalents
Verdana, Arial fonts

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Now that the Linux Desktop has become an undeniable factor, a prudent webdeveloper should include open-source friendly equivalents of the proprietary Verdana, Arial, Courier and Courier New fonts, to cater for this expanding audience.
Hence the following good alternatives, with percentages indicating the availability on Linux computers, sources: 1, 2, 3.
Equivalent fonts that are not available on your computer are shown in the generic serif of your system.

Verdana equivalents

Verdana (53.16%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
DejaVu Sans (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Bitstream Vera Sans (79.05%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Tahoma:	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Kalimati (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex

DejaVu Sans should be included being a quality Unicode font: glyphs not included in Verdana or Bitstream will be taken from DejaVu.
Geneva is <0.1% but 100% on MacOSX ; Tahoma also <0.1% but 55% on MacOSX.

Conclusion:
{font-family : Verdana, "Bitstream Vera Sans", "DejaVu Sans", Tahoma, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif;}

Arial equivalents

Arial (64.37%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Nimbus Sans L:	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Liberation Sans:	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Helvetica (62.64%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
FreeSans (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Malayalam (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Garuda (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Utkal (<0.1%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex

Recent proprietary fonts from Microsoft like Calabri, Candara and Corbel are below <0.1% and need not be included, also to prevent even further Vendor Lock-in.
FreeSans should be included since it serves as a rich Unicode font. Glyphs that are not included in Arial, Nimbus Sans L or Liberation Sans will be taken from FreeSans.
The Liberation fonts (also the Mono below) are very recent, but have a promising future.
Helvetica is also a good substitute for Arial on MacOSX where it is installed on 95.98% of systems.

Conclusion:
{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", FreeSans, Sans-serif;}

Monospace

Courier New (64.94%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Nimbus Mono L (86.21%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Courier (76.72%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono (80.74%):	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
Liberation Mono:	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex
DejaVu Sans Mono:	How quickly daft jumping zebras vex

DejaVu Sans Mono is included since it is a rich Unicode font, and glyphs not included in Courier, Nimbus Mono L, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono or Liberation Mono will be taken from Deja Vu Sans Mono.
Since Bitstream Vera Sans mono is definitely more stylish than Courier, it has earned pole position.

Conclusion 1:
{font-family : "Courier New", "Nimbus Mono L", Monospace;}

which remain thin even over 24px,
or with more weight:

Conclusion 2:
{font-family : "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono", Courier, "DejaVu Sans Mono", "Liberation Mono", Monospace;}

Unicode fonts

Below a collection of the best and most useful Unicode fonts that also include the phonetic characters. Compare the texts left with the image on the right. A corresponding line indicates that that font is already installed on your system!

Screenshot UNICODE Fonts phonetic characters [œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Gentium]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː GentiumAlt]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Chrysanthi]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Doulos SIL]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Code2000]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː DejaVu Sans]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Bitstream Cyberbit]
[œ̃ ʒ ŋ ɔʀɛː Arial Unicode MS]

If not, then the following simple command will install the lovely Gentium font on your (k)ubuntu system:

$ sudo apt-get install ttf-gentium

International keyboard layout

Dead keys

Below are all the permutations with the eleven dead keys of the International US keyboard [pc104-layout us-variant intl] on a Kubuntu or Ubuntu Linux system:

Diacritic

Dead keys

Space