Portable fonts and usage recommendations needed

[Dar Scott]

I'm getting frustrated with fonts on multiple platforms.

I tried using Ariel and Courier New thinking those would be most 
portable.  Just between OS X and Windows there are gross differences, 
both in metrics and--it seems--in the characters.

In some cases I can go to a fixed line height to force some metrics to 
be the same, but that will not work in most cases.  I would like to 
avoid a lot of formatting calculations.

I'd like to avoid tweaking a lot of profile parameters for platforms.

Why are fonts with the same names so different?

Are there fonts that have exactly the same metrics on different 
platforms?

Do other applications have such gross differences when the same font is 
used?

If that shows a gross ignorance of font metrics and platforms, I would 
like to learn more.  Well, actually, I would like to learn more anyway, 
but my immediate goal is to address fonts on multiple platforms.  If it 
requires a break to get educated, please point me to the right 
resources.

I'm talking about very big differences.

(Maybe this is a bug and I'm too ignorant to tell.)

Dar Scott