How come terminal windows keep popping up on top of the window Im trying to read?
That’s a misfeature of our default twm configuration. (Recently created accounts use xfce instead of twm by default.) You can fix it by copying /ccs/etc/dotfiles/twmrc as your ~/.twmrc file and editing out the line that starts `AutoRaise and the few lines (in curly braces) after it. But you’re better off switching to a different window manager altogether; see the next question.