GNOME yakatangwa musi wa15 Nyamavhuvhu 1997 naMiguel de Icaza naFederico Mena seprojekiti yemahara software yekugadzira nharaunda yedesktop uye mashandisirwo ayo. Yakatangwa muchidimbu nekuti K Desktop Environment, iyo yaive ichikura mukuzivikanwa, yaivimba neQt widget toolkit iyo yaishandisa rezinesi reproprietary software 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 kwariri 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 zita rekutanga reQt Desktop Environment, iro raikura mukuzivikanwa, rakavimba neQt widget toolkit iyo yaishandisa re
LGPL