Open Office loads extremely slow but…

… I did some research and I found out how to make it load faster.

This says:

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Memory and set the following options:

Undo

Number of steps = 20 (or fewer–most of us don’t use that many)

Graphics cache

Use for OpenOffice.org = 128 MB
Memory per object = 20 MB
Remove from memory after = 00:10 hh:mm

Cache for inserted objects

Number of objects = 20 (or try fewer)
__________________________________
Also, tick (put a check in) "Load OpenOffice.org during system start up".

I have tried these recommendations and OOO loads a whole helluva lot faster for me.

The article also recommends:

Choose Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Java. Unmark the "Use a Java Runtime Environment" option.

But warns that if you do so, you won’t be able to use certain functions like:

The media player on Unix-like systems
All document wizards in Writer
Accessibility tools
Report Autopilot
JDBC driver support
HSQL database engine, which is used in OpenOffice.org Base
XSLT filters
BeanShell, the NetBeans scripting language and the Java UNO bridge
Export filters to the Aportis.doc (.pdb) format for the Palm OS or Pocket Word (.psw) format for the Pocket PC
Export filter to LaTeX
Export filter to MediaWiki’s wikitext

The article was written back in 2006. Since then Microsystems has made OOO less JRE (Java Runtime Environment) dependent. You can read about the Java controversy .

I have tested disabling JRE and it is true that you won’t be able to use the Wizards. Also, disabling JRE makes a negligible difference in start up speed. My recommendation is to leave JRE enabled.