Hello,

Is there a good way to have multiple applications running simultaneously in a console (no X) and be able to quickly move between them?

For example:
1) playing audio in ogg123, mpg123, cdplay, or mp3blaser
2) vim open for editing source files
3) midnight commander for browsing files
4) dbg running a debug session
5) free prompt to compile and run between edits of the source file
6) monitoring software displaying cpu, mem, etc.
7) web browsing with lynx or links
8) email with mutt
9) small app for getting the latest baseball scores
10) tetris or pong for idle moments
11) ftp session for transferring data
12) irc client open for chatting

And I want all of these running in the console (no xterm(s) - X not started) and be able to switch quickly between them (alt-tab?). Is this possible, and if so how?

Yes its called screen and was designed for exactly this purpose

Here seems to be a good tutorial

and a quick Google search will find many and never forget man screen.

There's also, at a more basic level, the foreground and background commands.

Bash job control

You can also log in to multiple virtual terminals simultaneously. Most systems have 6 virtual terminals set up by default, which are accessed by alt+F1 to alt+F6.
(Use crtl+alt+F* when inside an X session to jump to one. X usually runs at alt+F7)

Hello,

Thanks. In my searching, I also came upon this program: TWIN

I've not used it, but I think Screen is included in Slackware. Yes, it is.