I’m using Mac OS X 1.3 (Panther), and after booting up, the spinning wait cursor would twirl for up to five minutes before the Finder was able to finish loading. Furthermore, the wait cursor would make an indefinate return whenever I attempted to use some programs.
The root of the problem may be be Airport. During each login, Airport will try to associate with the first wireless signal it finds. If that wireless network is broadcasting an SSID but has no outside connection, OS X will hang for a few minutes and you will see the “Spinning Beach Ball of Death” icon replace your mouse arrow. After a few minutes, OS X would stop trying to connect and finish loading. This would also explain why any programs you use hang as well - they may be trying to perform networking operations such as checking for software updates from the manufacturer. Certain programs may not give up after an extended period of failure (like OS X does) and would then hang until you Force Quit them.
The solution to this issue is quite simple: either connect to a different, functioning wireless network or turn Airport off.
