Steam often is so extremely slow, to the point that I can easily go downstairs, make myself acup of tea, come back, and see that it still didn't manage to log in and display the main screen. By then fifteen minutes have passed. Am I the only one who has this kind of extreme slowness?
For the record: I'm on an iMac running Mac OS 10.4.11 with 1.83 gHz and 1.5 GB RAM. Also, usually Steam will eventually be running, but it will stay slow in responding to buttons, scrolling through windows and all that. I can launch all my games and play them with great stability, but until I actually play them, Steam is very slow. Mind you, the games run in a speed I'd say is just about the same as I would be seeing on a normal PC!