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:
Also, quickstarter is still there in Windows (as of version 6.2) and works perfectly. Only the Linux version was removed.
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).
I can see how it may take several seconds to start on a busy system with small memory and slow spinning disk. The reason to remove the quickstarter from Linux was multiple problems with it causing crashes (Rene Engelhard has details), while the functionality is only implemented for gtk2 - so no way to use it with gtk3 or kde vcl plugins, and so requiring non-native look and feel for LO to (supposedly?) be able to use the function; no active maintainers who would fix all those bugs or implement it for other plugins, which makes "maintenance" of it kind of fake: it compiles, but no one knows how to fix/extend real problems. If a function is needed for people, then among those interested people a maintainer is expected to appear, as soon as the function is declared obsolete and prepared to removal, with some proposal how to proceed without dumping it; that didn't happen.
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.
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.
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.