Patterned slow-down over the entire GNOME desktop

[Ivan Gyurdiev <ivg2 cornell edu>]

Hi, I am experiencing slow-down over the entire GNOME desktop. It is 
interesting - 100% CPU activity for a very long time (too long for 
everything to be allright). What seems interesting to me is that the 
slowdown occurs in a pattern - every second time I start up the app it 
is slow, so run1:slow, run2:fast, run3:slow, run4:fast, regardless of 
timing. Further, this is a multi app pattern. Start up appX: slow, 
appY:fast, appZ:slow, appXX:fast. It also happens if you start up 
multiple copies of the same app: copy1:slow, copy2:fast, copy3:slow. 
Does not occur with multiple firefox windows, or multiple terminals, 
which will start up very fast if there's a single one open. Does not 
occur with something like xpdf - only gnome apps.

Suggestions? What's the correct bugzilla component?