Introducing ATM (AOSC OS APT Topic Manager)

With the closing of the Summer 2020 iteration cycle, we have now transitioned into our new topic-based iteration model.

What does this mean? It means that instead of a season-long cycle where feature updates are accumulated and tested together, feature, security, bugfix "topics" are created, built, and tested by their own schedule. With this new iteration model, we expect shorter package introduction, updates, and bugfix response times. As users, this means that you can test these topics individually based on your interest.

To help better manage these topics on your AOSC OS installation, we have developed ATM, or AOSC OS APT Topic Manager. With ATM's TUI interface, you could enroll in topics and receive early updates with ease. Likewise, whenever you feel like it, you could pull out and revert packages back to their "stable" versions.

ATM displaying a list of available update topics.

If you are using a standardised AOSC OS distribution (and admin-base is still installed), ATM is installed automatically on your AOSC OS installation with a recent update, and available as the atm command. ATM will be pre-installed with future AOSC OS distributions.

If you couldn't find the atm command, you may install ATM with the following command:

sudo apt install atm

— Mingcong Bai