One of the great advantages of portable apps is that they can run in a permissions-limited environment such as a terminal server. The problem with the Suite menu is that in such an environment, the rich gradient-based framing graphics, background image, and fade effect are major bandwidth hogs (and can really slow down the menu's usability over a slower network display link).
John, could you (pretty please...) add a setting that will provide a menu trimmed of background, framing graphics, and visual effects? It could perhaps be shrunk down to a solid color titlebar with the dynamic arrow ball logo.
For now, I guess I have to stick with PStart, but I'd much rather use the more integrated Suite menu.
The fade will be optional in the next release. Now that I have my SourceForge FTP issue sorted, I'm gonna be catching up on that.
When the fade is off, it's quite peppy over both Remote Desktop Connection and over VNC. I've tested it. I use both environments regularly. In fact, that's why I'm adding the option. There will also be a lighter-weight theme in a release after that designed for quick loading over remote connections. It'll be gradient free using solid colors that compress well over RDC and VNC.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
One environment I use is a trans-continental RDP connection, so I'll definitely need to wait for the solid color theme for that one. Turning off the fade is probably good enough for my local LAN server though.