Firefox slowdown during big IO ops

Wed Apr 21 14:06:17 UTC 2010

I have noticed this before, but only started to really wonder about it
recently.  During big IO operations, I find that Firefox slows down or
becomes unresponsive.  Other applications are running at reduced speed,
but only very slightly, and X shows no ill effects at all - mouse
tracking is fast, desktop switching is fast, but Firefox takes a nap.

The IO in question is something like a mv of a 1.5Gb folder from one
partition to another.

Can anyone explain why this is happening?

CPU Quad Core 2 (lightly loaded during the IO process)
2Gb RAM (hardly touched by the IO process)

Thanks!
-- 

yours,

William

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