Assembly language programming in unix environment

[freeburn]

i've been using netbeans for c/c++/java/python/php. I've just completed
a course on microprocessor and assembly language. in my university we
were taught using assembly with c/c++ in MS visual C++. we were
basically taught various DOS application using assembly/c/c++. but as i
dont actually give a damn about Windoze, i wanna learn assembly language
in unix environment. which programming environment should i use(cause
netbeans can't handle c/c++ codes with "_asm" blocks, and i dont have
much experience with gcc command line options.) . what about  "nasm "?
can it handle _asm blocks in c/c++ codes or it jsut a pure assembler
like MASM.