Typically I like to avoid the cloud based applications as I find them to be far, far to dependant on the Internet and all the annoyances that go along with that. I do make exceptions and I am making yet another exception, good, bad or otherwise.
Duolingo is touted as the world’s most-used education webapp used on the phone, tablet or desktop. This is a free app (with ads) or pay to have it without ads that provides more than 35 languages for you to choose from. The lessons are presented as quick, bite-sized, 3 to 6 minute practice sessions that has reading, listening and speaking exercises to build your vocabulary and grammar. The downside is, the lessons don’t always explain to you the rules, you sort of have to figure it out or research it elsewhere but still, 4½ out of 5 stars overall.
Bottom Line Up Front: I need to brush up on a few of the foreign languages I have worked on over the years. I am not a fan of the mobile device and doing “apps” in the web browser feels klunky to me. Thankfully there is an unofficial desktop client for Linux.
Installation
The unofficial application for Desktop Linux is available on Flathub. Maybe some other places too but this is where I got it.
https://flathub.org/apps/ro.go.hmlendea.DL-Desktop
From here you can download it or if you are using an application store like Discover, you can search for it there.
Once installed, run it form the menu like you would any other application
If you don’t yet have an account, you can set one up to get started or log in if you already have an account. I have had an account for nearly a year (at the time of writing) as I had been using it on my phone and in the browser to learn Latin in the last year.
Once logged in you are ready to do all the exercises you would have done in the website or on your phone with some exceptions. More on the exceptions later.
The conveneince here is that I much prefer having a full-on keyboard over using the touch interface when typing in answers to question. Using Duolingo in the browser easily gave me this ability.
Also, instead of clicking on the words with some of the questions, I can just start typing and the proper word will be selected.
Completing the lessons here is just like you would have on the mobile application or on the browser, which is great. The animations are fun and whimsical which makes learning that much more enjoyable.
That’s really all there is to it! I was just excited I could have a dedicated application for Duolingo on my openSUSE Tumbleweed machine and removing yet another reason to have a mobile device! Well, not really that last part, just another task I can do from my computer instead of the phone is the big win here.
What I Like
Duolingo is a great application for learning foreign languages, yes, it is a web app that pulls its data from a far-away server but it is a great way to compete in against your family and friends with something quite positive and wholesome like learning a foreign language.
The animations, competitions and continued encouragement to keep going is a great benefit of Duolingo. Seeing the cute owl head in my taskbar makes the experience a WHOLE lot nicer too. I do have things get lost in my multitude of tabs so this separation is absolutely fantastic
Super hilarious, Klingon is offered as a language you can learn. I can’t come up with a great reason why but I tip my hat to you good people of Duolingo. I just may give that a shot, should I ever want to larp as a Klingon warrior.
Clearly, this company is focused on having fun in education.
What I Don’t Like
Like so many services, this does hit you with ads but they have to get paid too. I appreciate the work they do and I think that I just may end up getting the family plan for a year or so to encourage my kids to stick with learning a language. This remains to be seen.
If you want to do the Math or Music lessons in Duolingo, they do require you use the iOS or Android platforms to do so. There may be some technical limitations for this but I question what they would be. I haven’t sought out these offerings but I would be in interested in the music portion, just because.
Final Thoughts
Duolingo is a great application to have on your phone and now your Linux desktop. Though in may not be an official application for Linux, having the web-wrapper app in my menu is an incredibly convenient way to consume this material. It frees you, albeit slightly from having to use your phone, tablet or lose the Duolingo tab in your sea of irresponisble, bad habbits in your web browser.
I am grateful to have this as an app on my desktop as now a quick stab of my meta / super key plus typing “duolingo” filters it out and quickly selected to get right into doing something productive on your computer instead of surfing social media or eBay. Flatpak has enabled a great thing to happen!
References
https://flathub.org/apps/ro.go.hmlendea.DL-Desktop
Applications
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