diff --git a/qt/linux/README.md b/qt/linux/README.md
index bf6ff6ac2..d19cac311 100644
--- a/qt/linux/README.md
+++ b/qt/linux/README.md
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
-These files are distributed with the packaged Linux version.
+These files are distributed with the packaged Linux version, and may be useful
+to Linux packagers. If you're building Anki yourself, please ignore these files,
+and follow the instructions in docs/development.md instead.