Oh, and it is called Slob Dictionary because internally I still use the SLOB format which, in my experience, has the fastest lookup support.

Future plan includes adding third-party support (no idea how I can do that since I switched to a Linux desktop after a long time and never developed any apps for Linux before), GNOME integration (not sure how challenging it is), and custom lists.

Since this is a desktop platform, we have the opportunity to make it support a number of dictionaries as storage is not a cause for concern. Also, since I'm a #GNOME user, the app is written in #GTK 4, and you can install the flatpak file using GNOME Software app.

It features almost all the features offered by OSS Dict or Aard 2 in addition to support for many other dictionaries. Key features include:

- Fast and simultaneous lookup across multiple dictionary files
- Persistent lookup history to revisit entries effortlessly
- Bookmarks for saving favorite definitions and terms
- Native light/dark mode following your GNOME desktop theme
- Supported dictionaries: Aard 2 (.slob), Almaany.com (SQLite3), AppleDict Binary(.dictionary, .data), AyanDict SQLite, Babylon (.BGL), cc-kedict, Crawler Directory(.crawler), CSV (.csv), DictionaryForMIDs(.mids), Dict.cc (SQLite3), Dict.cc (SQLite3) - Split, DICT.org file format (.index), dictunformat output file(.dictunformat), DigitalNK (SQLite3, N-Korean), ABBYY Lingvo DSL (.dsl), Kobo E-Reader Dictfile (.df), EDICT2 (CEDICT) (.u8), EDLIN(.edlin), FreeDict (.tei), Gettext Source (.po), Glossary Info (.info), JMDict (xml), JMnedict, Lingoes Source (.ldf), Makindo Medical Reference (SQLite3), Octopus MDict (.mdx), QuickDic version 6 (.quickdic), StarDict (.ifo), StarDict Textual File (.xml), Tabfile (.txt, .dic), Test Format File(.test), Wiktextract (.jsonl), WordNet, Wordset.org JSON directory, XDXF (.xdxf), XDXF with CSS and JS, XDXF Lax (.xdxf), Yomichan (.zip), Zim (.zim, for Kiwix).

The first thing I noticed after switching to #Linux is the lack of a good dictionary app. The only good #dictionary appears to be GoldenDict-ng but the UI looks dated. So, based on my past experiences in working with OSS Dict (a fork of Aard 2), I came up with my own implementation for Linux. I've just made the very first release of the app here: https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/SlobDict/releases/tag/1.0.0

My New Favorite Desktop Operating System
https://blog.muntashir.dev/2025/12/18/fedora-workstation/

#fedora #workstation #gnome #linux

@tshepang yes.

@MichaelZ Creating an Android Developer Console account costs you the same as creating a Play Console account (where you also get the same features in addition to publishing your app to Google Play), and I don't think this is an accident. They did this deliberately to force people to open a Play Console account rather than just an Android Developer Console account.

So, according to their video tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEATR5sF5Lo), for regular distribution, it's necessary to pay $25.

Finally got the invitation to #Google's new Android Developer Console for #DeveloperVerification. It says under the "Limited distribution" type, a developer is only allowed to distribute up to 20 devices. The details aren't that clear to me, not even from their official documentation (https://developer.android.com/developer-verification/guides/android-developer-console) which only says "Capped number of apps and installs." In any case, the distribution type itself is unavailable at the moment. So, the invitation was kind of pointless. (I did say I am a hobbyist in the form.)

I'll take this moment for a personal plea: please don't contribute LLM ("AI") code. Not to me and not to other projects.

The problem with LLMs is that writing code is the easy part, *understanding* the code and existing codebase and structuring it for long-term maintenance is the real challenge, and LLMs can't do that for you.

I know some people genuinely try to help using LLMs. And I appreciate the thought. But please be aware that trying to help is not always helping, sadly.

#Google to start #DeveloperVerification from next week.

@MichaelZ personally, I use Calculator++: https://f-droid.org/packages/org.solovyev.android.calculator/

"The most expensive calculator" in the world. It costs $650!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vinie4apps.flatcalculator

@eighthave @Epic_Null @emaksovalec @IzzyOnDroid This is really a serious topic that I believe cannot be addressed any time soon. My suggestion would be refraining from activities unrelated to FOSS and RB. Some of the members do not sound professional, unfortunately, which will be an embargo against the expansion of F-Droid in the future. I think F-Droid has received notable criticisms this time, and it will be in the watchlist for many months to come.

@@Epic_Null @emaksovalec You're talking about the F-Droid client. I am talking about the F-Droid repo. These are very different things, and the audience for them could be also very different.

If I thought their definition of users were more than what I've written, I'd never be a part of that "movement", because it doesn't align with my expectations from F-Droid. I expect them to adhere to the FOSS principles and not more than that. I have many other places where I can get involved with other movements.

F-Droid doesn't have a recommendation system or advertising, and it does verify the functionality of an app to the extent to ensure that it's safe to use and categorized correctly. These are some of the policies that also align quite well with the FOSS principles. Because an app that scams people, doesn't have the advertised features, or display advertisements are inherently non-FOSS. (This is different from an F-Droid client in the sense that it can have repositories that can offer these sort of apps.)

This was not always the case though. I think F-Droid has been facing a lot of criticisms lately for their trying to do things other than FOSS. I mean they were criticized for security issues, signing key issues, and so on in the past. But nowadays, things have taken a different turn. This is why I like #IzzyOnDroid repo more than the F-Droid repo itself, because @IzzyOnDroid almost singlehandedly has done a great job overall on the implementation and maintenance of apps, AFs, and static analyzers there. It offers more reproducible apps and it's easy to filter apps based on the AFs that an actual FOSS lover is interested in.

F-Droid team really needs to think about their definition of users and adhere to it for making policy decision. Many developers of apps available on F-Droid are also the users. So, if they start losing developers, they'll lose both apps and users. The FOSS spirit will still linger though, but it will likely be backed by another organization.

@Epic_Null I am talking from the legal perspective. If they require age restrictions, they can, of course, introduce a separate field for that.

@emaksovalec @Epic_Null After going through their documentation, I feel like the AFs in F-Droid possess some inherent ambiguities. They write:[1]

> When reviewing apps to accept, F-Droid takes the user’s point of view, first and foremost. We start with strict acceptance criteria based on the principles of free software and user control. There are some things about an app that might not block it from inclusion, but many users might not want to accept them.

Then in the next paragraph:

> Anti-Features are organized into “flags” that packagers can use to mark apps, warning of possibly undesirable behaviour from the user’s perspective, often serving the interest of the developer or a third party.

It appears this depends exclusively on the definition of “users”. Who are the users? I've always thought that they have classified users to be the ones interested in free and open source software and have no other expectations or obligations from F-Droid including but not limited to censorship and movements unrelated to FOSS. But they go on and say:

> F-Droid always marks Anti-Features from the user’s point of view. For example, NSFW might be construed as similar to a censor’s blocklists, but in our case, the focus is on the user’s context and keeping the user in control.

That extends the definition of users above and filters out a lot of their existing users (as well as funding sources).

However, NSFW appears to be the only documented AF that clashes with the traditional users.

[1]: https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/

@Epic_Null Let me ask: why do they need such an AF anyway? Sticking to the FOSS principles should've been enough for them. A friend of mine is telling me that this might be something to do with the age restrictions in some countries. If that's the case, why don't just label them so (e.g., by the age) like all the other app stores do? This is a tag that was never needed.

The NFSW label has been removed temporarily "until policy clarification": https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/28406