For those of you (much like myself) who are sick of looking at Courier New, then may I suggest giving these fonts a try. I'm currently using Dina and am pleased with the results. It was also created for optimal use in C/C++ code, and I have found that it actually is good for plain text as well.

Dina
ProFont
Proggy Fonts
Triskweline
Pragmata - Nice font, but costs money

Enjoy! Feel free to share any good fonts that I haven't included here.