It appears to be a change in UI behaviour. A clever change I admit, but one that causes problems with some font faces.
This is the list view font (Preferences -> General) set to Lucida Grande 12 pt and with the width of the name column reduced:
This is with the width of the name column extended:
It works better with some fonts than others and I have seen examples of overlapping with some fonts. Perhaps there is a hidden preference to turn the behaviour off.
I have found Helvetica works quite nicely with the compressed view.
(There also appears to be a bug in the font changer. If you search for a font, Its not possible to select the new font immediately after the search. You have to close the font changer box and reopen it from (Preferences -> General->List view font -> Select)
Its a clever interim solution but ultimately I would prefer a solution like this:
[url]Suggestion for change in UI behaviour of columns]
Frederiko