             (setq i (1+ i))))
         (spacemacs/replace-last-line-of-buffer spacemacs-loading-text)
         (redisplay))))
+
+(defun spacemacs/insert-buttons ()
+  (goto-char (point-max))
+  (insert-button "Homepage" 'action
+                 (lambda (b) (browse-url "https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs"))
+                 'follow-link t)
+  (insert " ")
+  (insert-button "Documentation" 'action
+                 (lambda (b) (browse-url "https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/doc/DOCUMENTATION.md"))
+                 'follow-link t)
+  (insert " ")
+  (insert-button "Gitter Chat" 'action
+                 (lambda (b) (browse-url "https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs"))
+                 'follow-link t)
+  (insert " ")
+  (insert-button "Messages Buffer" 'action (lambda (b) (switch-to-buffer "*Messages*")) 'follow-link t)
+  (insert " ")
+  (insert-button "Spacemacs Folder" 'action (lambda (b) (find-file user-emacs-directory)) 'follow-link t)
+  (insert "\n\n"))

      (require 'solarized)
      (deftheme solarized-dark "The dark variant of the Solarized colour theme")
      (deftheme solarized-light "The light variant of the Solarized colour theme"))
     (t 
      ;; other themes
      ;; we assume that the package name is suffixed with `-theme'
      ;; if not we will handle the special themes as we get issues in the tracker.

  ;; banner
  (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*spacemacs*"))
  (let ((buffer-read-only nil))
    (insert-file-contents (concat spacemacs-core-directory "banner.txt"))
    (spacemacs/insert-buttons))
  ;; evil and evil-leader must be installed at the beginning of the boot sequence
  (spacemacs/load-or-install-package 'evil t)
  (spacemacs/load-or-install-package 'evil-leader t)
