ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Prelink

Hey there kiddo! Do you know what prelink is? It's a computer thing that helps programs start up faster.

Do you ever wait for a game or computer program to load and it takes a long time? That can be really annoying, right? Well, prelink helps with that by making the loading process quicker.

Let's say you have a big puzzle with lots of pieces. Normally, when you start the puzzle, you have to search through all the pieces to find the spots where they fit. That can take a long time! But imagine if someone had already sorted the pieces by color and put them in little piles. Then, when you start the puzzle, you only need to look at the pile of blue pieces for the first section, instead of searching through all the pieces. That would make the puzzle go much faster, right?

Prelink does something like that. It sorts through all the parts and pieces needed to start a computer program, and puts them in the right order so they can start up faster when you want to use them. It's kind of like having a little helper who gets everything ready for you before you start.

So there you have it, prelink helps make starting up a computer program faster and smoother, like having a little helper to organize all the puzzle pieces for you. Cool, huh?