Can Illustrator please allow users to disable the Welcome Screen when the program loads? You can do this in Photoshop, and it's fantastic! I'm not saying get rid of the Welcome Screen, as I'm sure there are people who like it, but if we could simply have, as PS does, a checkbox which says: "Don't show Welcome Screen on startup", that would be fantastic for those of us who can't stand it.
To me the Welcome Screens are slow, annoying, and unnecessary. When you want to get working, the last thing that you want is this screen that takes way too long to load getting in the way of you actually using the software. It's just an unnecessary roadblock. File>New, or File>Open, etc, are far faster, and less aggravating alternatives.