Using GNOME/History of GNOME

GNOME was started in late 1997 due to unhappiness over licensing problems with KDE. In 1999 the first version was released.

In late 2001 the main focus switched to usability and GNOME 2.0 was released in June 2002. Gnome 2.6, was released in March 2004. Releases occur every six months. The current release is 3.22.

See also: http://www.linuxvalley.com/encyclopedia/ldp/lg/issue35/icaza.html