I prefer to use the command-line interface to upgrade my packages, using
"apt-get dist-upgrade". I find that the lists of packages to be
installed/removed/upgraded hard to read given that they are formatted with
multiple names per line.

Attached is what I stared at this morning when I ran apt-get dist-upgrade.
Particularly when there are a large number of packages to be changed, and even
more so when my console window is nice and wide and the text "fills out" the
screen, I find this list almost impossible to read. I would like it if apt had
a configuration or command-line option, like the 'ls -1' command, to show such
lists on a one-item-per-line basis.

Obviously this would mean I'd have to scroll around to see the complete list of
what's about to be done to my system, but I think it would make it much easier
to go through the list of exactly which packages are being changed. I like to
do "aptitude changelog" to see what's new in a particular package, sometimes
using that information to decide whether to hold it back or not.

[...]

You could use the -V option. With this option, the versions of the packages are
shown and each package on one line.

I didn't realize that -V caused the output to be one-per line; that switch is
quite an improvement, thanks.

Might it be a good idea to mention in the man page for apt-get that package
name output will be one-per-line when using -V / APT::Get::Show-Versions?