Nala is a Much Cleaner, Neater Alternative for the APT Package Manager

upstart writes:

Nala is a much cleaner, neater alternative for the APT package manager:

Many of us probably use the APT package manager system. Nala is a command line front-end that promises to both improve the interface and speed up downloads. I've only just loaded it so I cannot say whether the latter is accurate but at some point I will let you know what my findings are.

Although the APT package manager is a simple and effective command-line tool for installing, updating, and removing software, it does have its weaknesses. Nala is here to improve on that.

I've been using Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux distributions for a very, very long time. As such, I've seen package managers come and go. I've used APT, Synaptic, Snap, Flatpak and more. For the most part, they all do an excellent job of managing software on your system. The most prevalent system I've used is APT, and it's rarely failed me.

That doesn't mean APT is perfect. Case in point: APT is pretty ugly for a command line tool. It can also be a bit slow, especially in later iterations where it runs several checks post-install and post-upgrade. Not that I mind those checks, but sometimes the slowdowns caused by them can be rather annoying. On top of that, APT doesn't support parallel downloads, so larger upgrades can become even slower.

When a new tool came into being that promised parallel downloads, a history feature, the fastest mirror option that automatically selects the three fastest download mirrors and a considerably more user-friendly output, I was intrigued.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.