Virtual flashcards with Anki
Learn It!
Flashcards are a fast and effective way to memorize pertinent facts for your next exam. Anki takes this time-honored trick in a direction you never could have imagined in the days of those classic 3x5 cards.
Anki is a multiplatform, open source digital version of paper flashcards that "makes remembering things easy" [1] and "makes memory a choice" [2]. You can run Anki on Linux, macOS, and Windows systems, as well as on mobile devices [3].
Flashcards are a quick and easy way to memorize facts for academic tests and other training scenarios. The two main reasons to try Anki are the sheer number of cards it can handle (more than 100,000, according to its developers), and how easy it is to embed all kinds of content in each card, from audio and video to scientific formulas and musical scores. Anki also has many add-ons and a web interface [4] that you can use to study your cards online or keep them synchronized across multiple devices. Personally, I also really like that Anki saves and exports data in well-supported formats that make it easy to automatically create or analyze as many flashcards as I want in many different ways.
Installation and Upgrades
At the time of writing, there are two branches of Anki for Linux, one built with version 5 and one with version 6 of the same Qt graphic libraries that are the foundation of the KDE Desktop Environment. Both branches also depend on three external libraries – called libxcb-xinerama0, libxcb-cursor0, and libnss3 – that you should be able to install from the standard repositories of most Linux distributions.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
KDE for People Initiative Calls for AI Ban in Plasma
A new community of KDE wants the project to adopt a strict no-AI policy for KDE Plasma.
-
KDE Sets Ambitious Goals for 2026 and Beyond
KDE Connect reveals the goals for the Linux desktop darling, with one of those goals long overdue.
-
It’s Time to Test Fedora 45 Beta
Fedora 45 beta has been released with updated Gnome, KDE Plasma, and kernel.
-
Ubuntu Stonking Stingray Gets Even Rustier
Ubuntu 26.10 has completed its migration to the Rust-based coreutils.
-
AI Fixes Linux Bottlenecks Using “Hideous” Code
A Linux developer used AI to fix bottlenecks that caused problems when building the kernel. The resulting AI-generated code needed a lot of work.
-
Advanced Video Coding Still Under Patent
Brazilian patent BRPI0109962B1 has expired, which means that DivX and Xvid are no longer problematic for Linux, but it doesn’t mean that video is all of a sudden fully unleashed.
-
2,000 Vulnerabilities per Linux Release
Thanks to AI bug hunters, the Linux kernel is seeing record numbers of vulnerabilities, and it's overwhelming developers.
-
Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification Law
So long as Linux is distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses, the OS is exempt from being required to verify the age of its users in California.
-
Roll Out the Cake: Linux Turns 35
35 years ago, a Finnish student began a humble project that would forever change the course of technology.
-
China Switching from Windows to Linux
China has ordered several government agencies to drop a Chinese-developed version of Windows 10 in favor of either KylinOS or UOS.
