Lots of programs have a loading screen similar to LMMS’s. What lots of those programs also have is an accompanying progress bar, sometimes with text on what the launcher is doing. This is especially useful for programs that take a while to launch. While LMMS launches rather quickly for me now, as it grows, or for users with slower PC’s, it might take a while. By adding a progress bar we let the user know that something is happening, and with accompanying text we tell them what that is. This makes loading a lot more bearable and would also ease troubleshooting/analyzing it, because it’s possible to see what’s taking so long.
Now, for users who launch fast, a progress bar might not be very appealing (they tend to look bad when loading too fast in my experience). This could be optional, but I don’t think that’s the best solution. Instead I propose the progress bar only show up if LMMS isn’t X% loaded after Y seconds. I’m pretty sure this type of “delayed progress bar” is present in other programs as well.
Thoughts?