GNOME

What GNOME does

GNOME is an independent, community-governed open-source computing platform founded in 1997 and operated by the GNOME Foundation, a California-incorporated not-for-profit headquartered in Orinda, California. Its core product is the GNOME desktop environment, which includes the GNOME Shell, the Mutter Wayland compositor, the GTK4 UI toolkit, the libadwaita design system, and a suite of bundled applications (Files, Calendar, Maps, Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, Settings, Software, Papers, Evince, Boxes, Document Scanner, and Orca screen reader). The platform is distributed as the default desktop for at least ten major Linux distributions — Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora Workstation, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Vanilla OS, and Endless OS — reaching millions of end users globally. The ecosystem is extended through GNOME Circle (a certification and mentoring program for third-party apps), Flathub (the Flatpak-based Linux app marketplace), and a developer platform with GTK/libadwaita tooling.

GNOME has no commercial product, pricing, or direct sales motion. It is funded entirely through individual donations via donate.gnome.org, corporate sponsorships (Google, Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, Endless, Igalia, Codethink), infrastructure and in-kind contributions (AWS, DigitalOcean, Equinix Metal, Fastly, ClouDNS, OSU OSL), and a newly launched Fellowship program partially funded by the Sovereign Tech Agency. Governance is democratic via a Board of Directors elected by Foundation members. Distribution to end users is mediated entirely by Linux distribution partners, making the Foundation's customer base effectively the corporate sponsors and distribution vendors rather than individual end users.

The latest major release, GNOME 50 ("Tokyo") in March 2026, removed X11 support in favor of Wayland-only operation and introduced VRR, HDR screen-sharing, native fractional scaling, GPU-accelerated remote desktop, overhauled Orca accessibility, and parental controls. The project is also developing GNOME OS as a showcase for immutable, sandboxed Linux architecture, and has begun scaling paid contributor capacity through its Fellowship program to address maintainer sustainability.

Name

GNOME

Legal name

GNOME Foundation

Website

https://gnome.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

GNOME is a non-profit, community-governed open-source desktop platform founded in 1997, shipped as the default desktop on major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, Debian, and SUSE, and funded by donations and corporate sponsors such as Google, Red Hat, and Canonical.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Desktop Environment Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Developer Distribution & App Release Platforms (BPAMADAF)

Keywords

• Open source desktop
• Linux desktop environment
• Desktop computing platform
• Free software foundation
• Open source development

Headquarters

HQ city

Orinda

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Sponsorships: GNOME relies on individual donations and corporate sponsorships to fund development infrastructure, community events, and Flathub operations. The GNOME Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that accepts donations via donate.gnome.org.
2. Fellowship Program Funding: The GNOME Foundation's Fellowship program provides financial support to selected contributors for targeted work on critical project areas and broader community contributions, funded by donations and supporters.
3. Corporate Sponsorships: Corporate sponsors including Google, Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, Endless, Igalia, and Codethink provide financial and infrastructure support. Infrastructure sponsors provide services including DNS, CDN, hosting, and cloud resources.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

GNOME develops and distributes an open-source desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems, providing GNOME Shell as the desktop interface, Mutter as the window compositor, and a suite of batteries-included core applications (Files, Maps, Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, Settings). The platform also includes the GTK4 UI toolkit, libadwaita design system, Flatpak-based sandboxed application distribution, and an application marketplace (Flathub).

Product overview

GNOME is an independent open-source computing platform comprising the GNOME Desktop Environment as its core product, delivered as the default experience across major Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and others. The platform includes core components (GNOME Shell, Mutter compositor), core applications (Files, Maps, Document Scanner, Evince, Papers), developer resources (Developer Platform, GTK toolkit, libadwaita), and ecosystem programs (GNOME Circle for third-party app certification, Flathub for distribution). GNOME 50 represents the latest major release transitioning to Wayland-only operation. The GNOME Foundation Fellowship Program funds contributor sustainability. Third-party apps developed within the ecosystem include tools like Bobby (SQLite viewer), Fractal (Matrix messaging), and Graphs (plotting application).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GNOME Circle: Certification and mentoring program for well-designed apps built for the GNOME platform
• Flathub
• GUADEC
• GNOME.Asia
• GNOME OS

Products and services

• GNOME Desktop Environment An open-source desktop environment providing the core computing platform featuring the Shell overview for app switching and search, workspaces workflow, and consistent user experience across Linux distributions. Bundled with batteries-included core applications.
• GNOME 50 Major version release of the GNOME desktop environment that removes X11 support in favor of Wayland-only operation while retaining XWayland for legacy app compatibility, with improved accessibility, parental controls, HDR support, variable refresh rates, and fractional scaling.
• GNOME OS A pre-release operating system from GNOME designed as a showcase demonstrating a new vision for Linux centered on stability and security through immutable system design and sandboxing.
• GNOME Boxes Virtualization application for Linux that provides a graphical interface for running virtual machines, handling OS downloads, cursor capture, resolution adjustment, and file sharing automatically via a single Flatpak package.
• GNOME Document Scanner (Simple Scan) Open-source document scanning application that works in combination with Evince PDF viewer to replace separate scanning, reading, and annotation tools.
• Evince GNOME's default document viewer for PDFs and other document formats, used in combination with GNOME Document Scanner for document management workflows.
• Papers GNOME's document viewer for academic papers and PDFs, which added handwriting and text-box-based annotation features in nightly builds requiring modifications to the poppler PDF rendering library.
• GNOME Maps Core GNOME application providing quick access to maps across the world, with support for showing public transit departures and arrivals.
• Flathub The Linux app distribution marketplace partnered with GNOME, offering many third-party applications for the GNOME platform as the best Linux app distribution marketplace.
• Orca Screen Reader GNOME's screen reader for accessibility, overhauled in GNOME 50 with improved global settings and stronger application support.
• GNOME Foundation Fellowship Program Funding program to support selected contributors working on the GNOME desktop environment, addressing sustainability issues such as maintainer burnout and underfunding by providing financial support for targeted work on critical project areas and broader community contributions.

Quantifiable outcome

• GNOME 50 runs exclusively on Wayland, eliminating X11 and improving security and performance for millions of users across Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Fedora 44.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability3 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• IgaliacoreTechnology or IntegrationIgalia is a corporate sponsor of the GNOME Foundation and an open-source consulting company that contributes engineering work to GNOME, particularly to browser engine and platform development.
• FlathubcoreTechnology or IntegrationFlathub is the Linux app distribution marketplace for GNOME and wider Linux applications, hosting thousands of Flatpak-packaged apps. GNOME describes Flathub as 'the best Linux app distribution marketplace.' GNOME OS now uses oo7 by default as a replacement for gnome-keyring-daemon.
• KDEcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKDE and GNOME co-organize the Linux App Summit, a conference dedicated to encouraging application development on the Linux platform. The organizations share technology interests and jointly promote the Linux desktop ecosystem.
• Equinix MetalminorOthersEquinix Metal provides infrastructure hosting services to GNOME as part of the supporting organizations that provide cloud and hardware infrastructure.
• DigitalOceanminorOthersDigitalOcean provides cloud hosting infrastructure services to GNOME as part of the supporting organizations that provide infrastructure for GNOME.org and related services.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)minorOthersAWS provides cloud infrastructure services to GNOME as part of the supporting organizations that power GNOME's development infrastructure.
• FastlyminorOthersFastly provides CDN services for GNOME's infrastructure and Flathub, enabling fast content delivery globally for GNOME software downloads.
• ClouDNSminorOthersClouDNS provides DNS services for GNOME's infrastructure and domains, ensuring reliable domain resolution for GNOME.org and related services.
• OSU OSLminorOthersThe Oregon State University Open Source Lab provides hosting infrastructure for GNOME, supporting the project's development and distribution infrastructure.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• KDE: The primary alternative Linux desktop environment; KDE Plasma ships alongside GNOME on most major Linux distros and the two communities co-organize Linux App Summit, making KDE GNOME's clearest direct head-to-head competitor for default-desktop placement.

Broad incumbents

• Red Hat: Major corporate sponsor and the largest commercial Linux distribution; ships GNOME by default in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and provides significant infrastructure support, while competing for enterprise mindshare against Canonical/Ubuntu.
• Canonical: Corporate sponsor behind Ubuntu, which is the most widely deployed consumer Linux distribution; ships GNOME by default in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and is a co-host of Linux App Summit alongside GNOME.
• SUSE: Enterprise Linux distributor and core GNOME Foundation sponsor; SUSE Linux Enterprise ships GNOME as a desktop option, comparable along the open-source enterprise channel.
• Fedora Project (Red Hat): Community Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat that ships GNOME as the default Workstation desktop; directly comparable in mission as a community-led OS project layered on top of GNOME.
• Valve (SteamOS / Steam Deck): Built a Linux-based gaming platform (SteamOS, Steam Deck) that incorporates GNOME-derived session work; represents a major consumer-Linux adoption channel that is adjacent to but increasingly influential for GNOME's technology base.

Emerging players

• Linux Mint (Cinnamon): One of the most popular consumer Linux distributions, shipping its own Cinnamon desktop environment as an alternative to GNOME; competing directly for default-desktop placement and Linux mindshare.
• elementary OS: A consumer-focused Linux distribution built on its own Pantheon desktop environment derived from GNOME technologies; competes for design-conscious Linux desktop users and represents an adjacent DE strategy.
• Xfce: A long-standing lightweight Linux desktop environment favored for older hardware and resource-constrained systems; competes with GNOME in distribution default selections and within the same open-source desktop category.

Others

• Mozilla Foundation: A large open-source non-profit comparable in governance structure (foundation-backed, donation-dependent, multi-stakeholder) and analogous mission of building independent, privacy-respecting user-facing software.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/gnome
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/GNOMEDesktop
• Facebookfacebook.com/GNOMEDesktop

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments2 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about GNOME