Is there a location that has available ALL of the latest and discontinued packages for linux? Or do I have to download them one by one?

I know they'll be out of date once past a couple of months but that's alright, I just want to know if it's possible to download them all?

Can someone point out a site for such a thing?

Maybe, certain distros have an option to download packages without installing them. Of course, if you don't like all the clicking, it could be as easy as getting all the debian cds or dvds - they are complete (except for updates of course).

Do you literally mean "all"? Don't you think that's a bit much? What is it you're actually trying to do?

Well, if you mirror a Debian archive (or use jigdo or bittorrent to download all the CDs or DVDs) you'll have over 16K packages. You can also download the sources for all those CDs/DVDs.

Personally I find it much easier to download from the net as necessary. I do archive some packages to rebuild any system I install. The only other use I can think of for obtaining such a huge archive of mostly stuff I'll never even install is if I were travelling to places which I knew would have computers but no internet.

. No, you do not want to do this... Linux comes in many versions, each with it's own unique package management system and library of packages (AKA repositories). If you download "all linux packages", you will need to world's largest hard drive and you will have a bunch of junk you can't use.

If you mean all the packages for a specific distro, that is at least possible, but also not advisable.

Tell us what distro you are using and what you are trying to accomplish.

Okay, thanks. Basically it's not any specific distro I want to use but just download a repository from which to grab packages as i want/need them.

Of course they're not updated but what I'm concerned about is how long linux will be able to hold it's open free status.

With an upcoming lawyers convention on GNU software in September 2008 (http://eolevent.eu/ ) the first european open source lawyers event: lawyers will be debating the future of open source software. Concerned? I think all the linux community should be. You should probably keep an eye on it.

Open source SW is not going away. We may see all manner of manuevering by companies that want to make money off it, but noone has the power to simply kill it globally. The trends are all opposite to what you seem to be worried about.

Debian and Fedora each require 400 GB to mirror. That's 800 GB for 2 disrtros. I don't think you realize what you are asking. Then there's sourceforge.net, with 120,000 software titles. This project would take about a year, and you would need terabyte after terabyte of storage.

The debate looks to be about ways it works and ways it fits in with existing laws. If the GPL were to be suddenly rendered invalid (and both v2 and v3 would need separate debates and decisions) I am sure that the licence would be either amended to keep it valid or switched to another licence. It's a very good thing that lawyers are doing this - would you want to have to defend something in court with a lawyer who didn't understand what they were defending?

On the converse of that, SCO had a long winded court case with badly prepared lawyers and they lost badly. Good for the European lawyers in trying to prep themselves.

(my italics)

Hmmm, they'll be debating the future. Your reaction is that you are worried and want to keep a copy of the present (which will, by then, be the past).

While there are concerns about whether we will be taking the best and most productive path going forward, I can't see that this debate can make the past go away.

Note also in the description on the eolevent page there is: So, it only concerns GPLv3-licensed software. Not v2, not LGPL, not Creative Commons nor any other license. How much of the software that you would cache would be GPLV3? My guess is less than 5%. And for much of that, at this point, there is probably still a valid option of reverting to software available under the earlier license. In a few years, if v3 is in some way 'bad', it will probably cover a significant percentage of what you use on a day-to-day basis. But then, we will have had a few years to study the lawyer's opinions and react appropriately (GPLv4 anybody? No, thought not).

As of today, I just see this concern as just out of proportion.

If MS can't even enforce its EULA, protect its secrets, let alone tackle piracy, how on earth could a bunch of lawyers delete several terabytes of legal free software spread accross the whole wide world before anybody notice?
Doesn't mean we don't have to watch, but I'm confident they are powerless at least for the decade to come and that we have enough time to react when they start to acquire the power to do it.