Ok, well I can understand what you are saying, most any way,...it is kind of long but any way, your last comment /question :
If I use '&' alone, can I call the applications back to the front so that I can use them whenever I need? How do I send them back again?
Good question, I forgot to check that, I just use the icons in the task bar, click which ever one, and that brings it back, just like as if I had minimized the window, I need to start the VM again, and try it... Oh, no maybe not...
You should be able to use the arrow keys, to scroll back to which ever command you ran, for example just now when I said I need to start the VM, so I went to my terminal, (xterm), using the arrow key, <up>, I went up to when I started the VM, and just clicked it, and started the VM. Does that make sense ? I suppose another screen shot may be needed if it doesn't , just be sure not to close the terminal you used, but actually that would not be easy, I tried closing the terminal, and it gave me a warning that there are processes running, and so I could not close it. The task bar though is still nice to have, even if you don't use it much, it is handy for starting the programs I use regularly, no need to even open a terminal, I just click the icon, and it starts......
By tty you mean in text mode?
Yes, but I am surprised you did not know this --
I use Debian for probably about 10 years and I have never made a fresh install for the past 8, iirc
But any way, guess you will learn a new "trick", use the <ctrl+alt+f2 > key combination, where I say "f2", could be f3, f4, etc,... to get back to where you started, use f5, that usually is the one that your Desktop will be on, however, you still will not be able to use the 'screen' command the way you were, since I only just installed that a day or 2 ago, I am not sure with the options, etc...need to read the manual more on that. Any way, try it, if I make sense to you, if you don't understand me, I will have to try making some more screen shots, maybe even a gif animation,...it is one of those things that is hard for me to explain, if I could be there in in person, and show you , you would see what I mean about using the arrow keys to scroll through your command history, and also about the <ctrl+alt+f2 > to open up a new tty, that is "text mode", I guess, I never really have seen that term used much, I may be misunderstanding,...
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Here is a animation I made, not very good though , I don't do this very much and need practice, but any way, you will see the commands changing at the prompt, I am using the arrow keys to do that, scroll up and down: