Subclipse really, really slow and other initial observations

I have a project with about 700 files. If I run "svn stat" or even "svn
info -R" it takes a few milliseconds. I just refreshed my project in
Eclipse and it took nearly half an hour It looked like it was running
"svn info" for every each file and then pausing for a second.

I renamed a small directory and that operation took another half an
hour. It seemed to do a status and info on the files in the directory
over and over again for a few minutes (determined with ps). The output
of svn stat on the entire project then appeared in the console. Slowly.
About 5 lines at a time, and then a second pause. Remember there were
about 700 files. And then it ran svn info on every file in the project!
Seemed to be the same procedure as with the refresh.

I selected multiple files in the Pending SVN Operations window and
right-clicked. Again, Eclipse appeared to hang and minutes went by
before the menu appeared. The hooks really need to be tuned so a billion
svn operations don't occur between a right mouse click and the display
of a menu.

I was also hoping to select just a few files from the Pending SVN
Operations window and commit them, but the Commit menu item was greyed
out when more than one file was selected. Why?

Is all this due to the current state of the art, or is there something I
can do to tickle subclipse into better behavior? Note that I've never
used the CVS plugin so don't assume I know it ;-). At any rate, I can't
use it right now since Eclipse hangs for up to half an hour any time I
click a button.

Also, I was shocked to see my password in the clear when I did a ps. Can
subclipse be coaxed not to pass the user and password on every command
and use the subversion cache instead?

Fresh download of 0.9.3.1. Debian GNU/Linux (sarge) with Eclipse 2.1.

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler_at_newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and MH-E. Vote Libertarian!
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.