Bug 123959 - Please bring back systray quickstarter for Linux
Summary: Please bring back systray quickstarter for Linux
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
6.0.0.3 release
Hardware: All Linux (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Quickstarter
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Reported: 2019-03-09 11:10 UTC by Archisman Panigrahi
Modified: 2024-10-22 07:10 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Archisman Panigrahi 2019-03-09 11:10:26 UTC
Description:
Until version 5.4 Libreoffice could be run in the background with the systray quickstarter option, and it took a fraction of a second to open a file.

Since version 6, the quickstarter was removed from Linux, and now it takes 7-8 seconds to open a file, or to open a new Libreoffice window.

Running the command `libreoffice --minimized` does not help much, because it opens a libreoffice window, which speeds up opening of the file for the first instance, and the whole program closes when the file is closed (It does not run in the background).

The command `libreoffice --invisible` seems to prevent Libreoffice windows from opening altogether. It seems that there is no way to run Libreoffice in the background.

I don't know why the feature was removed from Linux, but I feel that it was very useful.

Note: In version 6.0, the package `libreoffice-systray` could be manually installed which provided this feature. From version 6.1 onwards, it was not possible to run in the system tray at all.
I have 4 GB ram and a quad-core i3 processor, and now Libreoffie takes 7-8 seconds to open a file, while with quickstarter enabled, it only took a fraction of a second.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install `libreoffice-systray` in Linux

Actual Results:
The command `libreoffice --quickstarter` or `libreoffice --quickstart` does not make LibreOffice run in the background. There is no way to enable quickstarter in `tools > options`

Expected Results:
Libreoffice should run in the background and show itself in the system tray.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: Yes


OpenGL enabled: Yes

Additional Info:
Comment 1 Archisman Panigrahi 2019-03-09 19:22:58 UTC
Also, quickstarter is still there in Windows (as of version 6.2) and works perfectly. Only the Linux version was removed.
Comment 2 Heiko Tietze 2019-03-23 08:35:37 UTC
The QS was never a real "quick" starter but an app that resides in the ancient systray and runs the program. The mentioned --quickstarter never worked correctly (don't have the bug number but there likely is one). 

Please give some proof to the "7-8sec" point (at least not for the second start).
Comment 3 Mike Kaganski 2019-03-23 09:15:29 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 4 Rene Engelhard 2019-03-23 09:54:34 UTC
no, don't remember about crashes anymore

the main thing was it being gtk2-only, unmaintained and that current desktops (GNOME3) - and don't forget this is GNOMEish (gtk2!) - do not even have the systray anymore.

Nothing to display it in, except somewhere hidden.
Comment 5 Archisman Panigrahi 2019-04-28 12:30:17 UTC
I have upgraded to version 6.2 using the official PPA, and it is a lot faster now (now files open in 2-3 seconds, Flatpak version of 6.2 was slower). 
It seems that quickstarter is not much required anymore. I understand why the change was initiated.
Comment 6 soltesz.andras@gmail.com 2021-09-03 14:46:37 UTC
IMHO, removing the Quickstarter for Linux was a huge mistake and resulted in a big performance regression for LibreOffice 6.1+.

It doesn't matter if the previous solution worked perfectly or not, it gave a pretty big performance boost for LibreOffice on Linux systems. Nobody cares if it wasn't visible as an tray icon, the performance boost was its main function and reason for existence.

With the Quickstarter in LibreOffice 5.x, spreadsheet and text document opening operations were done in ~1 second on my 6 year old system (still fairly powerful, 8-core AMD FX8150, 24 GB RAM, nvme SSD...etc). 

The same operation now takes 3-4 seconds with LibreOffice v6.4.7 (doesn't seem better on v7.x either). It also doesn't get much better for second and third file openings.

This makes day-to-day work with LibreOffice very bad on Linux desktops and makes it massively sub-par compared to the Windows version.

Please, reconsider implementing a new Quickstarter for Linux or bring back the old one.
Comment 7 Timur 2024-10-22 06:58:32 UTC
Personally I do not use QS but this was supposed to be accepted or closed, no point to have this staying open.
Comment 8 Mike Kaganski 2024-10-22 07:10:46 UTC
Not much interest in this in users over the years; OP confirmed improvement in comment 5; CC list has only two users; no duplicates; the explained cause is quite founded. Closing WONTFIX.

As a precaution against the usual "no users here not because of lack of interest, but because users aren't usually active on bug trackers - you just don't see the picture, etc.": no, this doesn't work with LibreOffice. Given our user base size, each wanted change gets enough interested CC/duplicate count; we can see the user interest from these metrics quite reliably.