I'll assert that if it takes AbiWord more time to start up than it takes
a splash screen to appear, we're doing something wrong in the loading.
I've never waited for AbiWord to load; honestly, the splash screen
annoys me a lot, and I'd love to have an option for it in the prefs. :)
A simple wrapper script or an alias doesn't cut it for me. I run
AbiWord from the strangest places during development (from debuggers,
from installed directories, from fresh builds off new source trees,
from alternate installs, etc.) that the only "centralized" location
for "no splash please" is ~/.AbiSuite/.
-- Shaw Terwilliger