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Idea #8378: Preload the desktop or bring back the splash screen

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #8042: smooth gnome login.
Written by rainwalker the 11 May 08 at 19:12. Category: Look and Feel. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
There is a gap between the moment you log in to when the desktop is loaded and functional. Before Gutsy, there used to be a splash screen that showed what was going on and did a nice job of filling that gap. Now, with Hardy, it's just a solid color while you sit and wait for the desktop to load.
In my opinion, this not only subtracts from the overall flow of things, but it's nice to know what's going on while you wait.
I know there's an option to turn on the splash screen (at least, there was in Gutsy), but honestly, it should be there no matter what if the desktop doesn't load faster.
Would it be possible to load the desktop, or at least some aspects of it, before logging in? In XP, the desktop is there as soon as you log in, it just has to load all of the startup apps.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #8378
Written by rainwalker the 11 May 08 at 19:12.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #8378 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
virsli100 wrote on the 11 May 08 at 19:36
i agree it should preload everything possible while waiting at the login screen. Although there comes the question, which user's settings should be preloaded. If there is only one user on that machine no problem emerges. If there are more users, then maybe we could make a counter which user logs in most frequently, and that should be preloaded. And we can also notice who logged in last time.
If the guess was wrong we can just free up the memory in no time, and load the right one. If the guess was right we have a huge time advantage.

henk0775 wrote on the 11 May 08 at 19:57
If you put a screenshot of the desktop at the end of the session, instead of splash screen? Maybe with a "Wait please" over.

vexorian wrote on the 11 May 08 at 20:42
The splash screen was removed because it increased the time the loading took.

You can put it back in your setup if you want.

It doesn't really take too much anyways, if it does then there's a bug harming performance in your setup .

mlapaglia wrote on the 11 May 08 at 21:36
LOL my Windows XP desktop takes 2 minutes to show up on a Core 2 Duo with 8 gigs of RAM.

Eldmannen wrote on the 11 May 08 at 23:00
People hate splash screens.

Splash screens are dead. Its thing of the past.

XVIIarcano wrote on the 12 May 08 at 07:30
Let me disagree, splash screens are neat... well at least way better than blasck screens! I agree that this is true only as far as the load time is not hampered but we should think it with some common sense: in user interface milliseconds do not matter and we should realize this if we want a distro for human beings rather that one for performance "measurebators"... take Joe Average and ask him if he finds more professional and human a 3 second delay watching a balck screen with no clue on what's going on or a 4 second delay with a nice and eye-candy splash informing him of what the computer is doing. Ok, we all know that Joe Average is clueless in any case but the splash is reassuring, you see the bar moving and you think "hey, it works"!

PErsonally I'd restore the splash by default and leave the option to turn it off for people who really cares for split seconds (as I am in no way questioning the right of everyone to opt for a marginally faster boot).

Auzy wrote on the 12 May 08 at 09:16
Huh? Splash screens dead?? KDE still uses it, and lots of programs use it. Irrespective of whether it takes 5 microseconds longer or not, the main reason for them is FEEDBACK. Without them, its not evident what is happening, so on slower machines, they will think it froze.

so I disagree eldmannen. +1

terlmann wrote on the 12 May 08 at 14:22
Splash screens. They do show something is working.
Perhaps better than a splash screen, just keep gdm in the login screen with a progress bar while the desktop loads in the background.

DShepherd wrote on the 12 May 08 at 18:47
If preloading the splash screen will make booting on almost any machine faster then I am up for it. If not then dont want it then.

I am sure there's other efficient ways of speeding up boot time.

As for the splash. I think that has died an appropriate death.. plus I think the splash slows down the boot time now.

sparky11 wrote on the 12 May 08 at 21:11
Check out idea 7188
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7188/
(possible duplicate)

Stinger wrote on the 13 May 08 at 04:41
"Slickboot" has been on the development roadmap for a while now.

rainwalker wrote on the 14 May 08 at 03:25
terlmann, that's a GREAT idea! Integrate the loading of the desktop with the login screen!


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