Major updates to Debian's advanced packaging tools don't come around very often, but APT 2.9 is here with a significant facelift.
Bash #6 – Package Manager APT (Debian, Ubuntu, Kali, Mint)
APT version 2.9 has just been accepted into Debian's unstable development channel. This is an unfinished development version, which should lead to APT 3 in time for Debian 13, which will probably appear around mid-2025.
The rate of development of APT appears to be accelerating. It's been just over a year since we reported on APT 2.6, whose development was spurred by the inclusion of soft-loadable firmware in the default Debian 12 installation media.
There are several changes in APT 3, but they are mainly cosmetic rather than functional. It will list packages in columns, rather than comma-separated full-terminal-width lists, which should make the output easier to read. It also lists the important part of packages to remove last so they don't scroll off the top of the screen during large operations.
