On: Saving Linux

[mathiasgredal]

Sure, but how useful is that when you can’t install any packages, since the package repositories only host packages for supported versions.

When a distro goes EOL, the package repositories typically move to the next supported version and delete all of the old packages.

[dsr_ → mathiasgredal]

Debian has all of the packages in archives.

https://www.debian.org/distrib/archive

[boomboomsubban → dsr_]

Even Arch has five years worth of kernel releases in their archives, with older versions offloaded to the internet archive.

[mathiasgredal → boomboomsubban]

Yeah, but regular package binaries get nuked pretty quickly to make space for new ones, especially on mirrors.

[boomboomsubban → mathiasgredal]

This went from "these ISOs are impossible to find" to "ok, but the packages are impossible to find" to "yeah, but they're not in the regular repos anymore."

If you want to do something unusual, you should expect to jump through a few hoops.

[seba_dos1 → mathiasgredal]

Perhaps if you're running some obscure niche distros. For all the major ones, this is just plain false.