1 — What is GNOME?
GNOME stood for GNU Network Modeling Environment at some point, which meant it was initially developed as a part of the GNU project. It was started by Miguel de Icaza in 1997, in reaction to the creation of the K Desktop Environment, which was, at the time, based on a non-free library.

2 — GNOME 1
The first version of GNOME was released in March of 1999. It sported a similar look to Windows and KDE? with a bottom panel, a task manager, and a main menu.
APPLICATIONS SHIPPING
GNOME 1.0 received 2 major updates in the next two years, namely GNOME 1.2, codenamed «Bongo», which focused on user experience, adding help and documentation, and new translations, and GNOME 1.4, «Tranquility, released in early 2001. 1.4 was a big release, introducing Nautilus, which managed the desktop, and served as the web browser and file manager.

3 — GNOME 2
GNOME 2 is still the longest running version of GNOME, with 2.0 releasing in June 2002. GNOME 2.0 revamped the whole desktop, basing itself on GTK 2, the next version of its base library. GNOME 2.0 introduced a lot of changes, adding font antialisasing, new icons and support for theming the stock icons, as well as streamlining the interface, removing some unused configuration options and making sure the interface was as accessible as possible. GNOME 2 introduced a dual panel setup, with the panel on top hosting the main menus and the system notifications, and the bottom one displaying the task manager as well as the virtual desktop switcher.

GNOME 2.0 was followed by 16 releases, one each month, lasting until GNOME 2.32, in september 2010. Notable highlights from these releases are the addition of a CD burner directly in Nautilus, replaced later by Brasero, a dedicated application, and a new spatial mode using one window per folder, the release of Epiphany, a GNOME web browser that still exists today and is the default on elementary OS, the creation of Evolution, a complete Outlook-like solution for email and calendar, the addition of a video player, Totem, and a document viewer, Evince.

GNOME 2 was the default on many distributions, most notably Ubuntu, during its whole cycle until XXXXX which switched to Unity, after the release of GNOME 3.

4 — GNOME 3
In April 2011, GNOME Shell 3.0 was released. Its goal was to unify the user experience, providing easier ways to start and maange applications and windows. Its first version was not that well received, some users indicating that „they forgot how stable and beautiful GNOME 2 was“. GNOME 3 is still in use today, with version 3.30 being the current one at the time of this videos recording.
GNOME 3.0 redesigned the whole experience. Gone were the panels of old, and the task managers, replaced by an all in one overview of activities, grouping shortcuts, open applications, and virtual desktops in one place.
GNOME 3 came with a whole new theme called Adwaita, and most core GNOME applications were redesigned to better fit the new desktop metaphor.

Since these changes were not to the taste of everyone, some members of the community decided to fork the GNOME 2 codebase, and created MATE. Another group ran with GTK 3, but reimplemented the traditional desktop metaphor with GNOME shell extensions, eventually leading to the creation of Cinnamon.

GNOME 3 still pursued on with its new idea of how a desktop should operate, and received a lot of updates, going through 15 new releases, one every six months. Here are some highlights:
GNOME 3.2 brought synchronization with online accounts, as well as a contacts manager, and the support for web apps, which wre going strong in 2011.

GNOME 3.4, released in march 2012, put Documents, Epiphany, and Contacts through a redesign to better integrate with the rest of the desktop, and added Applications menus, smooth scrolling support, as well as a ton of improvements in the looks department.

GNOME 3.8 added an applications view, displaying the most frequently used programs, as well as the ability to see all applications. It also introduced a GNOME classic experience, for those that wanted to return to the GNOME 2 desktop layout.

GNOME 3.10, released in september 2013 added a bunch of new applications, most notably GNOME Maps, GNOME Notes, GNOME Music and GNOME Photos, bringing the GNOME software collection to a whole new level.

GNOME 3.24 added night light, a feature elementary OS Juno has added recently, to help reduce eye strain by reducing the amount of blue light emitted by the screen, and GNOME calendar got a week view.

GNOME 3.26 revamped the settings application with a navigation sidebar, and added firefox account sync to epiphany, its web browser.

Finally, the latest version, 3.30, was released in september 2018, and greatly improved desktop performance, using fewer system resources. With it also came auto updates for flatpaks, and a new Podcasts application, as well as a ton of other improvements.

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