Rendering text in OpenGL

I have a task of rendering texts in OpenGL context in Windows and Linux environment. I am using FTGL + freetype which works good with one exception. In order to use FTGL I need to supply the font file when creating a font renderer. I do not know legal preprecussions but I do not want to redistribute for example Windows fonts to Linux users. The application has a usual UI where the user can pick the font name from a dropdown such as “MS Sans Serif”. Now how would I connect that name with the actual file in the system ?

If someone knows a better package than FTGL that would already do the I would appreciate if he shared the info.

What about simply providing open fonts ?
Or you need the fonts to look native to the system ?