As I run Debian, Debian Testing and Debian Unstable, I’ve been using the new version on Testing and Unstable for a while, and it’s a nice improvement. There is also Nala which is a DNF style Python front end for APT that works nicely as well.
https://9to5linux.com/apt-3-0-debian-package-manager-released-with-revamped-command-line-interface
This release comes with a completely revamped UI that features columnar display, support for colors, and more.
By Marius Nestor
The Debian Project released APT 3.0 today as the new stable series for Debian’s command-line interface (CLI) for managing packages, a major release that introduces new features and many enhancements.
APT 3.0 package manager gives users a concise and well-laid-out command-line output when updating, installing, or removing packages via the terminal emulator. The new APT 3.0 command-line interface brings a columnar display that will make it easier for users to scan for a package name.
The revamped command-line interface also features support for colors (red for removals and green for other changes), which makes it easier to distinguish commands at a glance, as well as a smoother install progress bar that uses Unicode blocks.
In addition, the new APT 3.0 command-line interface is less verbose and offers more padding to make it easier to separate sections and extract the relevant information for you. You can see a comparison between the new APT 3.0 UI and the current APT UI in the featured screenshot above, thanks to Julian Andres Klode.
APT 3.0 also introduces a new solver (using the --solver option) that allows APT to fallback to non-candidate versions and makes autoremove more aggressive, keeping only the strongest automatically installed packages.
Among other noteworthy changes, APT 3.0 introduces support for --target-release in ‘apt list’, a --comment option to record Comment: in history, support for uncompressed indexes from partial file:/ mirrors, a git-like automatic pager for apt(8), emulating git behavior, and initial pinning information to apt show --full.
It also adds support for debian-ports modernization, introduces the modernize-sources command, support for correctly calculating the kernel size in /boot, support for OpenSSL replacing GnuTLS and gcrypt, transaction support and upgrade count for pkgDepCache, as well as many documentation and translation updates.
The APT 3.0 release is dedicated to the late Steve Langasek, an Ubuntu and Debian contributor, and it will be the default command-line interface for the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 13 “Trixie” operating system series, due out in June-July 2025, and, as well as Ubuntu 25.04, which should be available later this April.
Check out the release announcement page for more details about the changes included in this major APT release and if you want to download the source package to compile it on your Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution.