So many different ways to look at this. An eight minute load time on even barely modern hardware is generally unacceptable. That would be an application smell

So many different ways to look at this. An eight minute load time on even barely modern hardware is generally unacceptable. That would be an application smell to me -- a sign that the application's code base is needlessly complex and will be prone to frustrating and difficult-to-troubleshoot problems later. On the other hand, the client doesn't care. They've found a good use for the time. In terms of billable time, if the client doesn't want to pay for better performance, then it's hard to argue in favor of spending any effort fixing that. It does kind of present an opportunity too. If you can have a long term relationship with this customer, then you can roll out subsequent versions in which you fix a little bit of what's wrong with the startup time in each version. The customer will feel like they're getting faster software with each update, which would be a pleasantly unique experience for the user. Or, just let someone else come along and tell the customer the same thing that everyone else in I.T. says: "This application is slow, you need more expensive hardware."