Wikipedia
XSplash
XSplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community that uses the X Window System to replace the scrolling-text screens that appear while booting a Linux-based computer with a graphical splash screen.
XSplash replaced usplash (which uses the Linux framebuffer) in Ubuntu 9.10 ( Karmic Koala), bringing Ubuntu closer to its goal of a 10-second boot time by version 10.04 ( Lucid Lynx). The improved boot performance over usplash and other boot systems is achieved by prioritizing startup processes related to the X server, and by using a single X server throughout the boot process.