It may be helpful to refer to this draft of GNOME's Human Interface Guidelines: http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig_new /desktop-application-startup.html
Basically, splash screens are discouraged, especially for applications that will load fairly quickly anyway. -- do not show splashscreen https://launchpad.net/bugs/64136 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
