Why does it take a computer application so long to start up, but so quick to shut down?
In: Technology
When you boot up an application, it’s code usually depends on packages of other code (either written by the main developers or often by other people) — and those packages need to be imported first so the applications code can run properly. The application may also then try to prepare itself for the assumption you’ll be using it — by reserving hard disk space, RAM storage, sending commands to your GPU etc.
However when you quit, the app doesn’t have to “unload” all those packages, it just needs to stop running. So it’s generally much quicker. Some apps still do need to “clean up” after themselves though, so either do that while you’re quitting or do it silently in the background after you’ve quit. Or, what’s becoming more common is that the developers are just expecting/relying on the operating system to clean up for them.
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