It was founded on 5 March 2001[1] by Compaq, Eazel, Helix Code, IBM, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and VA Linux Systems.

[14] The executive director position remained unfilled until February 2017, when former Debian leader Neil McGovern was appointed.

As of 2024[update], Advisory Board members include: Canonical Ltd., Debian, Endless Computer, Google, Red Hat, Sugar Labs, SUSE, and The Document Foundation.

GNOME Foundation called allegations baseless and started a defense aimed not just to defend Shotwell, but to invalidate the patents in question altogether.

[28] In October 2019, Open Innovation Network announced that their lawyers would assist help GNOME Foundation in discovery process to find prior art to invalidate the patent claims.

[29] The GNOME Patent Troll Defense fund received support of over 4000 contributors and surpassed the original goal of US$125,000.