Hi! I would like to make a request about anki adopting flatpak/flathub as the official or one of the official distributions methods on linux.
From the user point of view, getting it from flathub is way more comfortable. Assuming they are using a distro that comes with flatpak support and flathub configured as a repository (lots of them do nowadays), then the user can find and get notified about updates, and install these updates through their software center, together with their regular updates. This is currently not possible with the way anki is officially distributed on linux.
Also, just to be clear: there are no significant advantages for a developer to package their software themselves. It’s an operation that is fairly complex on its own, and it’s better left to people who know what they’re doing (ie. packagers). Currently, there is a bit of a technical difficulty from the packagers standpoint due to Anki’s build system so it’s almost impossible to find a distribution or package manager that provides a true Anki packaging (which actually downloads the sources and builds it; as opposed to just fetching the binaries from ankiweb), but since flatpak does not require building from source, it’s no issue.
To be completely honest, I’m not a huge fan of flatpak either, but, you know, if some people use it, they may have their reasons. However, if Anki starts officially packaging itself for some linux distribution, I think it should start with packaging for Debian, as I think debian packages are the one most users will be able to use seamlessly (as a huge share of distributions, even among the most popular, are derived from Debian, and thus are apt-compatible).
I support this.
Many apps including mkvtoolnix and handbrake work flawlessly via flatpaks.
Handbrake even recommends this method to get proper hw encoding.
It circumvents dependency hell among variety of distros.
Since they are platform agnostic. They would mostly work fine regardless of distro change or updates.
They are much more viable option in 2024 than ever before. Fedora atomic desktops (immutable) also promulgate the same.
I echo the sentiments of the other users, official flatpak build would be nice. The third party one is usually behind in updates, e.g. a security update from last year (sept 2025) was only available through flathub this month (june 2026).
The flatpak on flathub could just be offered as a secondary way to install, it doesn’t even need to be mentioned anywhere on the website. However, it showing up as verified on Flathub and being officially maintained or reviewed by the anki team would be a plus.
I disagree. If it’s officially supported, then the website should mention it. That’s important for discoverability too.
That’s the reason why I really wanted to have the FDroid link for AnkiDroid as well on the official anki website instead of only the Play Store link (aside from the fact that FOSS options are better in my opinion than propriatary software repos).
It’s also error prone, meaning all available downloads would need to be shown anyways. You could highlight the one that the browser identified as the correct one, but certainly not hide the rest.
