It is a desktop environment that is composed entirely of free and open-source software.
A humorous garden gnome. A garden gnome, or lawn gnome, is a figurine of a small humanoid creature, usually wearing a pointy hat, displayed for the purpose of ornamentation on front lawns or in gardens. These figurines originated in 19th-century Germany, where they became known as Gartenzwerge (garden dwarfs).  GNOME, KDE and Xfce are the most popular desktop environments for Linux. Most people end up using the default desktop environment that ships with their preferred Linux distribution. But experienced users prefer one over the year for either usability, performance, design or customizability considerations. While KDE is one of them; GNOME is not. However, Linux Mint is available in versions where the default desktop is MATE (a fork of GNOME 2) or Cinnamon (a fork of GNOME 3). Defaults aside, both GNOME and KDE are supported by popular GNU/Linux and BSD distributions. GNOME 3: Ease, comfort and control. GNOME 3 is an easy and elegant way to use your computer. It is designed to put you in control and bring freedom to everybody. GNOME 3 is developed by the GNOME community, a diverse, international group of contributors that is supported by an independent, non-profit foundation. Discover GNOME 3 Get GNOME 3.  GNOME (pronounced /ɡˈnoʊm/ or /ˈnoʊm/) is a desktop environment that is composed entirely of free and open-source software. GNOME is an acronym for GNU Network Object Model Environment. GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project and provides the GNOME Desktop Environment, a graphical user interface and a set of core applications, and the GNOME Development Platform, a framework for building applications that integrate with the desktop. Catchpoint. GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment, pronounced gah-NOHM) is a graphical user interface (GUI) and set of computer desktop application s for users of the Linux computer operating system.  GNOME is a lot of things. Usually, GNOME refers to GNOME Desktop Environment. Quoting the Arch Wiki: A desktop environment bundles together a variety of X clients to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities. It is created and maintained by the GNOME foundation. GNOME3 is what you see when you look at the GNOME website, or when you install Ubuntu GNOME, and is underneath many applications in Ubuntu, and Cinnamon. MATE is adding support for GTK3, the library underneath GNOME3. Typically when end-users speak of GNOME3, they mean GNOME Shell (since that is what you see). A desktop environment bundles together a variety of X clients to provide common graphical user interface elements such as icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and desktop widgets. Additionally, most desktop environments include a set of integrated applications and utilities. It is created and maintained by the GNOME foundation. GNOME runs on the X Window System and as of GNOME 3.10 also on Wayland. Versions of GNOME are available in most Linux distributions either as the default desktop environment or as an installable option and also in the ports collections of most BSDs. GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project and provides the GNOME Desktop Environment, a graphical user interface and a set of core applications, and the GNOME Development Platform, a framework for building applications that integrate with the desktop. GNOME Desktop. The GNOME desktop is a free, user-friendly desktop environment for Unix and Linux operating systems. It also provides a platform for development of new applications. The latest version, GNOME 2.10, is available for Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, BSD, and Darwin platforms. If you want to try it out, you can download a no-install-necessary LiveCD at torrent.gnome.org, 100 percent free, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_gnome http://www.diffen.com/difference/GNOME_vs_KDE https://www.gnome.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/definition/GNOME http://askubuntu.com/questions/333237/difference-between-unity-and-gnome http://askubuntu.com/questions/333237/difference-between-unity-and-gnome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/08/18/whatisGNOME.html
what is a gnome