(AnkiDroid has always been run independently, which is good, considering the state of the iOS client, which has always been neglected.)
I don't mind so much that it's paid, given how much use I get for the price, but it sucks knowing it sucks and not being able to help make it better.
> We’re currently talking to David Allison, a long-time core contributor to AnkiDroid, about working together on exactly these questions. His experience with AnkiDroid’s collaborative development is invaluable, and we’re grateful he’s willing to help us get this right. We’re incredibly excited to have him join us full-time to help propel Anki into the future.
It improved my grades so much in college that I spent the 25 bucks as a broke student so I could have it on my second hand iPad. This was before AnkiDroid even existed so it's amazing the price is still the same.
and then now why, of all times, when a solo developer is never more productive, would the lead maintainer cede ownership? the antidote for programming burnout has just been invented, just take it haha
Writing code is fun. Solving interesting problems is fun.
Debugging deep problems is fun.
Debugging slop code is a painful suffering experience, having to constantly double check that the AI agent didn't just change the unit tests to "return true" and lie to you is tiring, and the feeling that you can't significantly improve the tool burns me out hard.
That last one can't be overstated. When I find a weird behavior that looks like a bug in the linux kernel or rustc or such, I find it exhilarating to read code and understand what the bug is, how it got there, and to feel like I can fix it and never see it again.
When claude code gives me a "wrong" output for my prompt, I don't feel like there's any possible way I can go and find what part of the Opus 4.5 model resulted in it not being able to give better output.
I feel helpless to debug what went wrong when claude code spirals into the deep end.
I can add more initial context, add skills, but those are tiny heuristic tweaks around the giant mass of incomprehensible weights and biases that no human understands.
The antidote for programming burnout is not to replace all the fun parts of programming with painful probabilistic suffering.
To amend, I got way more than 30€ of value out of it. I learn a new language, and vocab training with Anki works better than anything else.
For example, copy and paste retains the text color (probably by design). So, sometimes I get black text on a black background, when the app is in dark mode.
The editing process to remove the formatting is pretty annoying.
It takes me time to find the edit button, which is buried in the menu but prominent in the desktop version. Then, I have to toggle the HTML mode and delete the retained tags, which on a phone takes time. The desktop version, instead, has a button to remove all formatting.
Very appealing, makes people try app immediately. :)
We've got a setting [developer options only] which completely reimplements them, it won't be live for 2.24, but hopefully 2.25
https://github.com/ericli3690/gsoc-ankidroid-report/blob/mai...
> I keep pressing the second button to OK a card, I rarely use the 3rd and 4th. But if I fail a card, that button becomes a NOK, and I keep pressing it out of reflex
> I can't help interpreting "card was a leech" notification other than "how dumb can you be". Fortunately there is no way to turn it off.
> It keeps phoning home for some reason, each time it gets into the foreground. It is really great when you are behind a proxy, and it keeps complaining that there is no network, every single time. Of course that call can't be turned off. Also, have no idea what it sends home. I try to trust that it's not some nefarious.
> Some years ago, for some reason Anki changed DB format, in a backwards incompatible way. There was a notification at the start of the app, that if I don't want it, I shouldn't update my app. I did turn off auto-update. A few weeks later it bricked my deck (my deck got updated to the new format, even though that old iOS app was the only way I accessed it), also trashing my 3 years long strike.It seems a lot like saying nobody should use GMail unless they agree to pay for premium Google Services.
Anki app has an interface for adding/editing cards, and can absolutely be used without AnkiWeb or syncing. In fact, this is how I used it myself for years. I would argue that using AnkiWeb and syncing is an advanced feature for people who got the taste of having own decks and don't want to loose it.
Not sure whether you'd still be entitled to the source code under the previous license then.. can a copyright owner revoke a previously issued license to the code? Haven't heard of it, but wouldn't surprise me if it's legal.
I think this "problem" is somewhat made up
You can't revoke previously issued licenses (unless the license allows it, which it doesn't in this case).
(I think the data model underneath Anki is...showing its age (and lack of explicit design) and building that on top of it would not be too easy. I've thought about it a few times.)
This fictional person you describe also has access to the web and Anki on there.
Anki is not a very useful tool if you are not making or editing your own decks or a teacher is for you. This is an incredibly painful experience on mobile.
I would agree with you, but he doesn't seem to mind