how to create a new terminal window from the command line in RHEL 5.3

Question

I use putty to get to my RHEL 5.3 workstation from my Windows laptop.

Typically, if I want a new terminal on my windows 7 workstation from another terminal or mc, I have to type start and I will see a new terminal window running the default shell.

QUESTION : What is the equivalent command in RHEL 5.3 (and or solaris) to create a new terminal window from the command line ? I will be entering this command from the shell prompt or mc's command line.

UPDATE

In Windows, if I want to start another terminal and in that terminal, I want to run a program, I can do "start program.exe arg1 arg2". this will create a new terminal window and runs program.exe in that terminal window. I don't have to create a terminal and then in a separate step run the program. How can I do this in Linux ?

Answer 1

If you're using putty, I'd just duplicate the session.

Remember that putty is a Windows app, your Linux machine can't make a new Windows app.

If you have an XServer (and you can download XMing XServer for free) you can run a few different terminals, including xterm, gnome-terminal or konsole, etc.

You can also use the same putty window with multiple sessions with screen or tmux.

Answer 2

Unless you're running a X server on your Windows machine, you can't do this and will have to start a new instance of PuTTY. If you are for some reason running a X server then you can simply call the terminal emulator name followed by a &.

gnome-terminal &

Answer 3

screen is your friend.

You can have multiple sessions, each running independently.

You can even detach a screen session, log off and shut down your Windows PC completely, go home and start a putty session from home, and re-connect to the detached screen session which will still be running.

Screen is da boss!