Ubuntu 21.10 Compressing Debian Packages With Zstd

It's coming three years later than originally planned but with Ubuntu 21.10 this autumn the Debian packages will now be compressed via Zstd for offering speedier decompression speeds.

Over the past three years Zstd support was added to Ubuntu's APT and dpkg as well as seeing broader Zstd support within upstream Debian too. Now that there is widespread and mature Zstd support throughout the ecosystem, Ubuntu is finally moving ahead with switching to Zstd-compressed .deb packages starting with Ubuntu 21.10.

This blog post confirms the ongoing transition for Ubuntu 21.10 and ends with "enjoy the speed!" for these forthcoming Zstd-compressed Debian packages.

This follows other distributions like Fedora RPMs with Zstd compression making use of the Facebook-developed Zstandard compression technology for greater compression (depending upon settings and former compression algorithm) and much better speed.