Mac OS X X11 Server, called X11.app, is configured to open a new xterm on launch by default. This default behavior can be pretty annoying, but can be easily disabled.
In order to stop Mac OS X X11.app from launching a new and empty xterm when launched for the first time, one must install a customized .xinitrc file into $HOME.
During start, X11.app looks for $HOME/.xinitrc and, if no one is found, it executes /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. It’s the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc script the one that launches an empty xterm.
To stop X11.app from launching an empty xterm:
cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc $HOME/.xinitrc- Edit $HOME/.xinitrc and remove the line that reads
"xterm &"
This will prevent X11.app from starting useless client applications, like xterm, on launch.
felipe-alfaro.com 
Thanks, this is about the only source of this information that I could Google. Can you publish it in forums.macosxhints.com so that other people can benefit from it?
I’m having this problem. I found xinitrc only in X11/lib, not in /etc. The xinitrc I found did not contain a line starting xterm, rather it starts quartz-wm. Commenting out that line solved my problem. Apparently quartz-wm is a window manager for x.
@Macintosh-2 ~ % locate xinitrc
/sw/fink/10.3/unstable/main/finkinfo/x11/xinitrc.info
/sw/fink/10.4-transitional/unstable/main/finkinfo/x11/xinitrc.info
/sw/src/xfree86-base-4.2.1.1-3/xc/programs/xinit/xinitrc.cmd
/sw/src/xfree86-base-4.2.1.1-3/xc/programs/xinit/xinitrc.cpp
/usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc
@Macintosh-2 ~ % cat .xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap
# merge in defaults and keymaps
if [ -f “$sysresources” ]; then
xrdb -merge “$sysresources”
fi
if [ -f “$sysmodmap” ]; then
xmodmap “$sysmodmap”
fi
if [ -f “$userresources” ]; then
xrdb -merge “$userresources”
fi
if [ -f “$usermodmap” ]; then
xmodmap “$usermodmap”
fi
exec quartz-wm
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