Better font rendering has been a hallmark of mac apps since OS X was released. Even the version of TextEdit (mac Notepad/WordPad analogue, for those unfamiliar) that shipped with OS X 10.0 likely beats out Word when it comes to things like kerning.
What’s strange is that I use Microsoft Word on a Mac, and the font rendering is uniquely terrible in Word. At times it can seem that Microsoft goes out of its way to make its products do a bad job with core functionality.
