There's a simple fix for this, and other, GNOME related issues...

Get rid of GNOME!

I can do as much, and be as productive, without using a specific DE, by setting up my GUI to use a simple tiling Window Manager (DWM) along with dmenu.

Seriously, there are a myriad of Terminal Emulators available which are not desktop specific, and configuration is merely accomplished by editing a plain text file.

Why is this crap even on the front page of HN?