Audacity used to be my goto for quick audio editing and recording sessions but unfortunately since a few versions it’s become unusable because of incredibly slow startup, thus the ‘quick’ side of it is not there any more.
I have re-tested this with the 3.7 version on Linux Manjaro (Arch derivative), after deleting any configuration directory in my home directory (.config and .local/share).
I’m on a relatively ‘modern’ laptop and use a bunch of other audio/music software which runs fine (Ardour, Carla, Rosegarden).
The first issue is that on first run audacity takes more than 1 minute just to get to the ‘Plug-in scan’ window and then that takes ages to proceed.
I do indeed have lots of plugins, so I tried cancelling that and eventually (again after a while) audacity appears.
Even disabling the initial plug-in scan audaicty always takes at least 1 minute to load.
I don’t think there’s any command-line switch to have a verbose output or something which might help ‘debug’ this.
I would be happy not to have any plugins other than the ‘stock’ audacity ones.
I am assuming plugins are the culprit but not sure.