Packages Distributed by Linux Distributions

We have seen a lot of issues caused by the customized versions of Anki distributed by Linux distributions:

  • Anki depends on third-party libraries like Qt, and Linux distributions often substitute different versions of those libraries, without testing the impact of those changes.
  • Sometimes the version of Anki they distribute is years old, or is an alpha/beta version not intended for stable release. Distributions will often disable the built-in update check as well, to prevent you from being notified of newer versions.

Compiled builds of Anki are available on https://apps.ankiweb.net. Most of the necessary libraries are included, and Anki has been tested to work with these library versions. If you're experiencing issues with your distro's version, the first thing you should try is switching to the latest packaged version we provide.

You are welcome to continue using your distro's version of Anki if you prefer, but if you run into any issues, you will need to report them to your distribution's package maintainers.