Hi!
I try to be an adept of Amarok 2 like I was with vers 1.x, but for every version i tried since version 2 until 2.0.96, i'm confronted with the same issue.  Amarok takes up to 30 seconds before the splash screen's replaced with the main screen.
I'm using Arch Linux (up to date) with more than 27000 mp3, ogg, m4a and flac files.

Here's the console output:
danym ~  $  amarok                                                                           
Object::connect: No such signal MountPointManager::mediumConnected( int )                         
Object::connect:  (sender name:  'MountPointManager')                                             
Object::connect:  (receiver name: 'MountPointManager')                                             
(6756)/: Communication problem with  "amarok" , it probably crashed.         
Error message was:  "org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply" : " "Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken." "

Nothing happens for 15 seconds here

danym ~  $  QLayout: Attempting to add QLayout "" to MainWindow "MainWindow", which already has a layout                                                                                               
Couldn't resolve property: linearGradient5167                                                     
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!                                                               
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!                                                               
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986                                                     
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!                                                               
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!                                                               
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986                                                     
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QWidget::insertAction: Attempt to insert null action                                               
QGraphicsScene::addItem: item has already been added to this scene                                 
QPainter::begin: Cannot paint on a null pixmap
QPainter::translate: Painter not active
QPainter::end: Painter not active, aborted
Couldn't resolve property: linearGradient5167
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986

After that, Amarok is up and running!

I just realized that if my playlist contains all my collection, it affects the starting time.  If i use dynamic mode or fill the playlist with only a couple of songs, amarok starts instantly!
Is there a way to make it starts fast even if my playlist contains more than 27 000 songs?

Why on earth would you put 27 gazillion tracks in your playlist? Just don't do that. Use the collection features instead.

I don't want to start a long endless discussion about my habits with my music players, but like i did with amarok 1.4.x and rhythmbox is to have all my collection as my playlist as it is much easier for me to switch to or skip a song without having to look elsewhere.  I usually listen to my music as random mode.
I try to adopt amarok 2 (because i use KDE (since version 1.1)), but i still find things hard to handle.
Anyway, i'm pretty sure that amarok 2 will continue to evolve in a direction that will suits all needs.

Dany Martineau wrote:I don't want to start a long endless discussion about my habits with my music players, but like i did with amarok 1.4.x and rhythmbox is to have all my collection as my playlist as it is much easier for me to switch to or skip a song without having to look elsewhere.  I usually listen to my music as random mode.

This is not an attack and not intended to fuel an on-going discussion, it's just the way I see things being a former Rhythmbox user and making the transition to Amarok.

I don't understand why you would want to create a playlist of your entire collection in Rhythmbox, since you can do what you describe without creating one.

I used Rhythmbox without ever creating a playlist for the same reasons you described, it's more collection/queue oriented with playlists seeming like more secondary feature, so it's a more natural fit to use it that way.

For this same reason, when I first started to use Amarok being required to have a playlist to play anything was very odd and unnatural to me and I too created a playlist of my entire collection.

Over the course of a few months I grew to appreciate the way the focus on the playlist dictates the design of features in Amarok. A few more months I stopped using a playlist of my entire collection completely, it just started to seem so unnecessary.

In keeping with my previous habits I very rarely have a saved playlist, whether it is static or dynamic, whatever the current playlist is, is all there is.

Your usage may dictate different preferences, but for my usage listening to the entire collection randomly is very easy, just turn on the dynamic playlist, don't create any rules, hit populate, and start listening. Skipping is easy enough, just prune the offending tracks from the list when come up. Since it is so easy to find anything in your collection and add it to the current playlist, that desire is taken care of as well.

Later, Seeker