GNOME 1
GNOME 1 is the first major release of the GNOME desktop environment. Its primary goal was to provide a consistent user-friendly environment in conjunction with the X Window System. It was also a modern and free and open source software alternative to older desktop environments such as the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), but also to the K Desktop Environment (KDE). Each desktop environment was built-upon then proprietary-licensed widget toolkits (Motif and Qt respectively), whereas GNOME's goal from the onset, was to be freely-licensed, and utilize the GTK toolkit instead.
GNOME 1.0 desktop with Panel and file manager | |
| Other names | GNU Network Object Model Environment |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | GNOME Project |
| Initial release | March 3, 1999 |
| Final release | 1.4
/ April 2, 2001 |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Unix-like |
| Platform | GTK |
| Successor | GNOME 2 |
| Type | Desktop environment |
| License | GPL-2.0-only |
| Website | gnome.org (archived at Wayback Machine) |
GNOME 1 was announced on August 15, 1997, and received its first release on March 3, 1999. Miguel de Icaza served as the primary architect, while other key developers included Federico Mena Quintero (then GIMP maintainer), and Elliot Lee. The three are considered founders of the project. Red Hat, who employed Mena and Lee, also provided development resources through its "Red Hat Advanced Development Labs" (RHAD), which was founded to tackle usability issues for Linux. The project was affiliated with the GNU Project during this time.