Irfanview does the job for me, though it also needs enabling
Isn’t it windows only?
I use Irfanview as well. Inherited this habit from my university days. I suppose you could use a compatibility layer but you might have to copy some Windows DLLs…
I feel your pain; most of the mainstream viewers, CM or not, take an eternity to start up, as if they’re written in Go or Python or some other millennial interpreted language. Well now, how many people have I irritated with that sentiment??? 
Oh, +buncha for Geeqie. i use it as my DAM to rawproc.
I’ve been considering including such a viewer in the rawproc suite. C++, use the rawproc CM-managed image library for loading, only have forward-backward buttons to navigate the directory. Right now i’m wrestling exiv2 and exiftool into submission for better metadata, might not get to it for a bit…
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no buttons! That is easy with the keyboard. Only a window with the photo.
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Even easier…
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I’ve found that Geeqie is fast enough. I used minimalist sxiv but gradually increased my Geeqie usage because it turns out I rarely only view images. It turns out I tag or cull and geeqie has fast tagging with autocomplete and that ‘treat raw+jpg as one’ magic feature that simplify culling.
So for all my photography needs I now use geeqie. Sxiv is there for other peoples images but I view less and less of other peoples images on my computer these days.
I’m even looking into the distinctively non-minimalist Digikam because tagging photos of my way to large extended family is so tedious. The month after holidays is always a pain 
Well I don’t know much about developing software but… if you have buttons you need some toolkit for the gui like gtk or qt. Right? Without buttons less dependencies?
Even as a non programmer I take offence! Go is non interpreted language co created by Ken Thompson and Rob Pike. That’s proper neckbeard genealogy.
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These are the features that I “need” as far as image viewers are concerned:
open common image file types, including raws (embedded preview is enough here though), navigate a directory with the arrow keys, zoom in for checking sharpness, panning at zoomed view, and directly open the photo in an image editor (from the image viewer). I do not need rotating or tagging or anything similar. Maybe viewing some exif info? Well and of course color management. And of course full screen view, but I could even live without that.
Whups, picked the wrong language… Okay, JavaScript.
I’ll not say “perl”, my personal interpreted favorite!
This is what got me considering to do such. I’ve already included a “snapshot” key in rawproc, just takes the displayed image and copies it to a dialog box, very simple to do. Doing same to an external program is a bit more daunting…
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I just use XnviewMP for simple tasks (viewing, exif display, starring, batch renaming). As far as i can observe, it takes into account the image ICC and system display profile (on windows).
There is a Linux version. I don’t know how it works with an HDR display.
It is not minimalistic in your sense and it is free but not FLOSS.
As long as you aren’t hung up on which keys you hit, this sounds pretty close to being a checklist for Geeqie:
open common image file types, including raws (embedded preview is enough here though), yep
navigate a directory with the arrow keys, page up and page down keys
zoom in for checking sharpness, Z key
panning at zoomed view, OK you need to drag the image with the mouse for this
and directly open the photo in an image editor (from the image viewer). right click and pick your editor
I do not need rotating or tagging or anything similar.
Maybe viewing some exif info? yep
Well and of course color management. yep
And of course full screen view, but I could even live without that. yep
However, you said that you felt Geeqie is not minimalist enough…what would you want to subtract?
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Firefox? 
I split my usage between it and Irfanview.
+1 for Geeqie. I think that is the fast viewer out there. It is also very customizable.
Have you tried Showfoto? It is a part of digiKam project. It does not use the digiKam’s database so it could be fast (turn off splash screen though).
I also use Gwenview but it probably isn’t minimalistic for you (since Geeqie isn’t).
I need neither toolbars nor most of the right click menu. About thumbnails i am not sure. Depends on whether the file manager can show thumbs. I d say i d try to remove the dependecy from gtk. If i could. Sorry for the typos i dont have a keyboard at the moment.
$ geeqie -s .
$ geeqie -t .
No file navigator, just the first image in the cwd. I scrolled through the rest of the images wiht the mousewheel, speedy-quick. All the goodness of geeqie, including CM. Linux only…
Edit: okay not so simple, geeqie wants all instances to look the same, need to explore the preferences.
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Perhaps you may like PhotoQT?
It seems a nice viewer, although in my machine there are certain raw files that show odd colors. I can’t say that they are related to certain raw file formats, as there are cr2 files correctly rendered, while others show a cast color.
With nef files it shows a correctly rendered image, it’s quick, no gtk, and as simple on screen as you want. I haven’t a lot of experience with it, though, so you have to test it to see if it suits you.
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