GNOME – 20 years together – our past and looking to the future

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the GNOME project when two Mexican students created a desktop based on Free Software principles. Since then GNOME has continued to thrive and evolve, meeting each challenge with a persistence that is unique to this project because of its longevity and dedication to a grand vision. Building a desktop that just works, distraction free computing, with a clear and consistent set of design patterns.

GNOME’s success is due to the people who participate in it. The familiar mantra that is frequently espoused by our members - “GNOME is people”. During our twenty years, we’ve had members who left on their own personal journeys, and new ones who start a new journey with the project. Most look back to their period in GNOME as a time of personal growth, fellowship, and fond memories. We hope that members who are involved today find themselves on a similar journey.

To those who have GNOME in their rear view mirror, we share our deepest respect and gratitude for all you have done on our behalf. If you were a developer, your work lives on in our codebase as a living testament. For those of you who wrote articles, designed apps, spoke up for equality, were uncompromising in making GNOME a welcoming place, we are forever grateful. Thank you.

For all the newcomers who are joining us, we hope that GNOME will be your home for a long time to come. That your experiences, passion, and personal journeys are enriched by your involvement in GNOME. In turn, we know that you will make GNOME better, as a project and as a community.

Having passed this milestone, we can now look forward to the exciting future on what the next five, ten, and yes - twenty years will bring us. Today, we have exciting initiatives in Flatpak and Flathub, modernizing our development model, and building an outreach programs that diversifies our talents, people, and strengths.

In the past 20 years, we have matured our platform, and it’s time to position ourselves aggressively as the platform of choice for applications, user experience, and community. In the next 20 years we will build momentum for a future that respects privacy, security, and ethical computing. We can’t do that without you. So we circle back to our mantra – “GNOME is people”. Let’s go forth and challenge the status quo.