GNOME yakatangwa musi wa15 Nyamavhuvhu 1997 naMiguel de Icaza naFederico Mena seprojekiti yemahara software yekugadzira nharaunda yedesktop uye kunyorera kwayo. Yakatangwa muchidimbu nekuti K Desktop Environment, iyo yaive ichikura mukuzivikanwa, yaivimba neQt widget toolkit iyo yaishandisa rezinesi re software rezinesi kusvika vhezheni 2.0 (Chikumi 1999). Panzvimbo peQt, iyo GTK toolkit yakasarudzwa sehwaro hweGNOME. GTK inoshandisa GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), rezinesi remahara re software rinobvumidza software inobatanidza nayo kushandisa seti yakakura kwazvo yemarezinesi, kusanganisira marezinesi eproprietary software. GNOME pachayo inobvumidzwa pasi pe LGPL yemaraibhurari ayo, uye GNU General Public License (GPL) yezita rayo. "GNOME" pakutanga yaive chirevo cheGNU Network Environment, ichireva kune yekutanga dhizaini software rezinesi kusvika vhezheni 2.0 (June 1999).
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