The Finder uses animation, for example, to provide some visual feedback with the "expansion" effect between icon and window that is seen when opening files or folders, or strictly for eye candy, such as when certain "disclosure triangles" are opened or closed.
If you are willing to sacrifice the visual feedback, disabling animation can provide a snappier experience, which may be of benefit to slower systems. Opening a single folder seems faster, and opening a multiple selection of folders is measurably faster (depending on the system's speed and number of folders). To disable animation in the Finder, open the Terminal (in /Applications -> Utilities) and enter this command:
defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true
To selectively switch off just the superfluous animation when clicking on disclosure trinagles in "Get Info" (or the preview pane for files in Column View), use this command instead:
defaults write com.apple.finder AnimateInfoPanes -bool false
Moving in the other direction, for something completely useless, Finder also offers a "slow motion" mode similar to what is available for the Dock when the Shift key is depressed while activating Exposé or minimizing windows. In this case, the command is:
defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableSlowAnimation -bool true
To see the effect, hold down the Shift key while opening a file or folder on the Desktop, closing a Finder window, or clicking a disclosure triangle in Get Info or the preview panel of Column View.
The changes above require the Finder to be restarted (or the user to log out and back in).
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050705155727856