I believe that you mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrashing_(computer_science)

Chris Siebenmann discusses when the OOM killer triggers: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/OOMKillerWhen

Chris disables systemd-oomd after it obliterates his X session with no explanation: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/SystemdOomdNo...

> First off, this is exactly how systemd-oomd is supposed to behave under memory pressure. The documentation is specific on this; systemd-oomd itself says:

> > [...] If the configured limits are exceeded, systemd-oomd will select a cgroup to terminate, and send SIGKILL to all processes in it. [...]

> By having the user@.service template be enrolled in systemd-oomd, Fedora made the cgroup that systemd-oomd would select to be killed be all of your processes (across all of your sessions, if you have more than one). ...

Maybe *Fedora* has fixed or improved in the last 4 years. Or maybe they don't run Fedora.