GNOME has been around a long time and there are quite a few distros that just ship with a modified version of it. But, elementary OS ships with our own home-grown desktop environment called Pantheon.

What is elementary OS based on?

elementary OS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS. It promotes itself as a “fast, open, and privacy-respecting” replacement to macOS and Windows and has a pay-what-you-want model.

Is Elementary debian based?

In a way, Elementary OS is based on Debian, because it uses the same package management system and some basics.