kdeinit is a process launcher somewhat similar to the famous init used for booting UNIX. It launches processes by forking and then loading a dynamic library which should contain a 'kdemain(...)' function. Using kdeinit to launch KDE applications makes starting a typical KDE applications 2.5 times faster (100ms instead of 250ms on a P-III 500) It reduces memory consumption by approx. 350Kb per application.