Just started using this version and was totally surprised by how fast it opens. My old version took forever. Audacity’s the greatest! 
The 2.1.x series also has greatly improved audio processing tools.
Koz
For what it’s worth, there has not been any general fix to slow startup times. 2.1.1 and 2.1.2-alpha can take up to 40 seconds to launch for me using a spinning hard disk drive (HDD) on Windows 7 x64 (6 GB RAM). It’s quicker on Windows 8.1 and 10 which are a good deal “lighter” than Windows 7.
Gale