GNOME waxaa bilaabay August 15 1997 Miguel de Icaza iyo Federico Mena sida mashruuc software lacag la'aan ah si ay u horumariyaan jawi desktop iyo codsiyada loogu talagalay. Waxaa la aasaasay qayb ahaan sababtoo ah K Desktop Environment, kaas oo ahaa sii kordhaya ee caan ah, ku tiirsan Qt widget toolkit kaas oo loo isticmaalo liisanka software lahaansho ilaa version 2.0 (June 1999). Halkii Qt, GTK toolkit ayaa loo doortay sida saldhig ee GNOME. GTK isticmaalaa GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), liisanka software lacag la'aan ah oo u ogolaanaya software xidhiidhinaya in ay u isticmaalaan set badan ka ballaaran oo ah liisanka, oo ay ku jiraan liisanka software lahaansho. GNOME laftiisa waxaa shati ku hoos LGPL maktabadaha ay, iyo GNU General Public License (GPL) ee magaceeda. "GNOME" markii hore waxay ahayd magac la soo gaabiyo ee Network GNU, oo tixraacaya asalka deegaanka desktop, kaas oo loo isticmaalo liisanka software lahaansho ilaa version 2.0
LGPL