Are bad download speeds considered normal after a release of a new Ubuntu version?

Installing new packages on my recently installed Ubuntu machine is slow. Fetching apt headers even took me more than three minutes because they are downloaded at ~20kB/s – in my case from at.archive.ubuntu.com – not to mention the actual packages themselves, which are much larger.

• Is this considered normal in the days after a major version release?

• What can I do to speed up my downloads? Can I switch to another mirror? Does that even pay off?

• Or should I wait with the downloads until the big hype has cooled down?

Is this considered normal in the days after a major version release?

Definitely.

What can I do to speed up my downloads? Can I switch to another mirror? Does that even pay off?

If you're on the main mirror (is that a mirror if it's the original?), things are going to probably suck pretty hard. The rule of thumb is to use whatever's local to you.

You can change your mirror using the Software Sources dialogue (run software-properties-gtk). I suggest you click other and then click Select Best Server.

If that still doesn't help, you could try guessing which mirror is going to have the most spare bandwidth.

Or should I wait with the downloads until the big hype has cooled down?

You might find that available bandwidth varies based on the time of day. If you use a local mirror and can leave it overnight, you might wake up and find everything complete.