Speeding up apt-get downloads: apt-fast, apt-proz, & apt-metalink

Ubuntu users often use apt-get to install software. However this means you have to download the files from the repository. It would be nice if you can actually use some kind of download accelerator for downloading the files while also being able to install it within a single command.

apt-fast

It first appeared as apt-fast. It utilizes Axel to accelerate the downloads and then proceeds like normal apt-get. In fact, using it simply requires you to substitute apt-get with apt-fast in the Terminal. Now as it comes with a PPA, installing apt-fast becomes pretty simple. Enter these commands in Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast

Now you can use apt-fast as if it was apt-get.

apt-proz

The second option is to install apt-proz, which is a modification of apt-fast. Instead of using Axel, it uses ProZilla. The author, Damar Riyadi, claims that it is faster than apt-fast itself. You can skip the first line if you have added the repository before. Enter these in Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm271/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-proz

Note that if you have apt-fast installed, you can substitute apt-get with apt-fast. Using apt-proz is exactly like how you use apt-fast; simply substitute apt-get with apt-proz.

apt-metalink

The third option is apt-metalink. However this doen't have a PPA, so the installation would be a bit different. It utilizes Aria2 for downloading, and requires editing sources.list files to add more mirrors. For more information, visit their page: https://github.com/tatsuhiro-t/apt-metalink