diff -up mate-terminal-1.5.0/src/terminal.c.0000 mate-terminal-1.5.0/src/terminal.c
--- mate-terminal-1.5.0/src/terminal.c.0000	2013-01-20 01:28:16.304679769 +0100
+++ mate-terminal-1.5.0/src/terminal.c	2013-01-20 01:34:17.528815617 +0100
@@ -524,7 +524,25 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
 	/* Make a NULL-terminated copy since we may need it later */
 	argv_copy = g_new (char *, argc + 1);
 	for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i)
+	{
+		/* add support for -geometry and -T from xterm 
+		* modify -e meaning when argv[0] == xvt for consistency with other
+		* terminal emulators  
+		* we are leaking these options but it is not really a problem */
+		if (!strcmp (argv [i], "-geometry")) 
+		{
+			argv[i] = "--geometry";
+		}
+		if (!strcmp (argv [i], "-T")) 
+		{
+			argv[i] = "-t";
+		}
+		if (!strcmp (argv [i], "-e") && g_str_has_suffix(argv [0],"xvt")) 
+		{
+			argv[i] = "-x";
+		}
 		argv_copy [i] = argv [i];
+	}
 	argv_copy [i] = NULL;
 	argc_copy = argc;