cygwin very slow under virtual box (productivity hit)

[J.V.]

I have Windows XP Pro x32 in a VM with the latest version of cygwin 
installed.

When I open a cygwin bash shell, and type '$ls' it just sits there forever.

Any other command I type is freakishly slow.  How do I get this to run 
faster under a vm environment.

I am not sure why it is taking so long to do a simple ls or mkdir or any 
other command.

Even if I $vi a file it takes a while seriously cutting into the 
productivity gains that cygwin on the host environment provides.

Is there a commercial version of cygwin or the likes that I can lay down 
cash for to go fast under a VM environment?
I need to get this going or dump it all together for something else, 
work has slowed to a halt.

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