I also agree this thread seems a bit surprising. For first time users, we could print a special message, “Hold tight while we precompile your packages to make everything go fast!” and then what you’re calling a loss turns into a win, because if they know why it’s happening most users will be patient while the process completes.
You’re complaining about a one-time 2x precompilation degradation when packages like Makie have had an every-time nearly 100x TTFX win. While I sympathize about the concerns about the 2x precompile degradation, I agree with Chris that the title of this post is just wrong, and that’s been backed up beyond a shadow of a doubt by (non-Pluto) “new user” reactions I’ve seen in my teaching.
Indeed, I’d go so far as to say that Julia 1.9 may be the first Julia version that’s truly suitable for new programmers. Julia is great for advanced classes, but for an “intro to programming” class, too many things in Julia are slow without it delivering the advantages that Julia brings to more advanced programmers. With Julia 1.9, I’m moving an introductory programming class from Python to Julia precisely because you can plot in a reasonable time now.