Linux Desktop Hacks

Reduce OpenOffice.org Startup Time #55

Chapter 8, Desktop Programs

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175

HACK

Yet, did you ever notice that if you leave the word processor running, you can

open a spreadsheet application very quickly? That’s because the behemoth

engine behind the spreadsheet was already loaded into memory when you

started the word processor.

The obvious solution to providing quick launches of OpenOffice.org is to

preload the bulk of OpenOffice.org when you first start your window man-

ager or desktop, before you launch your first application.

OOOQS, I Did It Again

A utility is available for KDE that does just that. It preloads much of

OpenOffice.org, and then makes it possible for OpenOffice.org applica-

tions to start up almost immediately. The utility is called OpenOffice.org

Quickstarter, or oooqs, and it was created by Christian Nitschkowski.

Quickstarter places an icon on the KDE panel. You right-click the icon, and

from a menu, select what you want to do with OpenOffice.org, such as start

a new text document or open an existing document. Depending on the speed

of your computer, the application can appear on-screen almost immediately.

Many Linux distributions make the OpenOffice.org Quickstarter package

readily available. You can get the Debian version over the Internet by log-

ging in as root and issuing this command:

# apt-get install oooqs-kde

An RPM package is available for Fedora Core, SUSE, and other RPM-based ...