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Whenever I type the name of an application to open it, the application opens, but after opening it, the terminal seems to be busy with a process so that it doesn't give me the prompt for the next command (I mean following the $ sign). Then I can't type any more command in the terminal and I have to exit it pressing the close button (at the top left) which in turn kills the process. Please note that I am using precise pangolin & this problem seems to be pertaining to all the processes.

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Try adding a & after the name of the app, e.g.:

firefox &
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  • Thanks a lot. It worked. But what's the significance of the ampersand? What exactly the terminal expects after opening the application unless I enter &?
    – Della
    Aug 10, 2012 at 6:47
  • Not exactly sure but if you ever want to launch an app without all the other text you can use alt + f2
    – alme1304
    Aug 10, 2012 at 11:37
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    @TrailRider That is not correct. An & at the end of a command makes it run as a background job. & and && are different operators. Furthermore, command1 && command2 will not always run command2. The right hand side of an && expression only runs if the left hand side of the expression terminated indicating success. Aug 11, 2012 at 21:56

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