Is it just me...?

...or does Linux handle process priorities like ass? I've noticed many times multitasking behaves weird and sub-par compared to Windows. For two times I've had to reset my fucking workstation because some regular process (think Kate (!)) would take 100% CPU somehow and I couldn't even get to switch to a text terminal to kill it, Bash wouldn't start. The mouse cursor is sluggish when the system is busy; X screensavers in KDE's Control Panel preview box behave really weird (sometimes sluggish, sometimes fine), simple commands launched from a terminal sometimes deal a huge impact on applications, browsers get terribly slow and sluggish when JavaScript marquees present (I've noticed FreeType is slow as hell too), and so on.

I've found Windows 2000 far more smooth and better respecting process priorities.

Ah now bzipping can bog down your system because it's an IO intensive process. I notice it most when unpacking a large archive. You might be able to adjust its niceness to avoid getting in the way of your activities.