Hello, I guess commit 3229 breaks things. gconf_ping_daemon() gives 0, even if dbus is running. This means, that if there is no gconfd-2 instance around, gnome-terminal want start. If, with my system setup, I just reverse 3229, everything is fine (== a gconfd-2 is started if not already running) Patch attached. Hope that helps.
Have you opened a report at bugzilla.gnome.org ? -- Christian Kirbach