1. Overall comparison of GNOME with KDE and Unity
2. Comparison of GNOME 1 and GNOME 2
（1）GNOME 1
Version numbers: 1.0.53 October, 1.2 Bongo, 1.4 Tranquility
（2）GNOME 2
(3) Comparison results
a. The biggest difference from 1 to 2 is: an important upgrade based on GTK2.
b.GTK2：
GTK+ 2 is the successor to GTK+ with new features including improved text rendering using Pango, a new theme engine, improved accessibility using ATK, full conversion to Unicode using UTF-8, and a more flexible API. But it is not fully compatible with GTK+ 1, so the porting work must be done by the programmer.
2.x From 2.0 to 2.32: Manager improvements, performance improvements (additional applications), improved GNOME panel theming, new tools added (Brasero, media player), optimization tools and managers.
3. Comparison of GNOME 2 and GNOME 3
（1）GNOME 3
(2) Comparison results
①The biggest difference from 2 to 3:
a. Introduce GNOME Shell;
window manager: mutter;
The clutter tool provides visual effects and hardware acceleration, replacing the GNOME panel;
b. A redesigned more concise and centralized options framework;
c.GTK+3.0；
d. Remove long-abandoned development APIs;
②More UI changes and insertion of built-in programs;
③ GTK+3 main enhancements: Cairo, more X11 agnostic, XInput2, CSS-based theme API.
(GNOME 3.0 Release Notes https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.0/ )
4、Unity
Unlike GNOME and KDE SC, Unity is not a desktop package, but a user interface. Its main application platforms are personal computers, netbooks, and tablet computers.
Unity still used mutter and clutter at 10.10, and later used compiz instead of mutter and openGL instead of clutter.