opening programs

just loaded mandrake 7.2 and because i'm always chatting online with
friends i decided to load yahoo messenger when done. to open this
program i simply have to type the command from a terminal window, but
if that terminal window is closed the program also closes. anyway to
run a program like that without having to open the terminal window?

hey, so i'm just a windows guy used to easy shortcuts. maybe i'm just
tring to run too many os's over here. but at least i've got a lot
covered.

rooster