You can install and run Blender through Steam. There's even a beta channel for the release candidates. That might get around the slow download issue.

Indeed it did! Barely pressed the download button before it finished, and it's 2.80 as well, as opposed to the previous RC. Already updated on Steam too, that's quick!

Well look at that, couldn't find an Ubuntu apt repo I trusted -- ppa:thomas-schiex/blender appears to be often suggested but he has an open offer for someone to take over the repo admin, and I've no idea who he is.

I hate fragmenting my install routes though.

Fwiw the Steam install comes up as only 491MB for me. Also I see quite a few "bring back 2.79" comments whilst everywhere else I've looked had only been positive.

Same issue here (London). Stuck at 0.3 mb.

You might be able to download it through steam.

I grabbed most of the downloads from the website and have them in a resilio share here BBFPBUQ2TM7EKQIH3MVFPQWIRBLWVQEOO too if that helps.

Don't believe so