On my everlasting search for stuff to make my system work faster i came across apt-fast and the Axel download accelerator. Apt-fast is a script written by Matt Parnell and it speeds up all apt-get installations and upgrades. And Axel is a download accelerator that accelerates the HTTP/FTP downloading process by using multiple connections for one file. According to Matt Parnell using these two programs will make the apt-get installations and upgrades roughly 26x Faster.
To install apt-fast open a terminal window (press Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy:paste the following lines:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast
And to install Axel download accelerator:
sudo apt-get install axel
After the installation close the terminal window and the next time you install a program or check your system for updates use apt-fast instead of apt-get and enjoy a much faster way of downloading all the files.
apt-fast Homepage
Axel Download Accelerator Homepage