[tex-live] Is tlmgr 2008 now completely unusable?

[B Wooster]

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Norbert Preining <preining at logic.at> wrote:
> On Di, 01 Dez 2009, B Wooster wrote:
>> Is there any way to make tlmgr run on my what-was-working texlive 2008
>> system? I can live without updates, but wanted to install some new
>> packages.
>
> Then you have to upgrade to TL 2009 by doing a new installation.
>
> This was announced several times that upgrades from 2008 to 2009 is
> not possible and that there will be no updates to 2008.

I was not actually looking for updates, I'm fine with the way texlive
2008 works, but I had not installed the full collection and was just
looking for one more package (xetex).

How should I have prevented this problem? This is on a small machine,
so cannot install the full texlive collection. But I would like, for
2-5 years at least, be able to pick and choose new packages to install
as the need arises. Updating full texlive every year is just not an
option.
I would have thought that even though 2008 may not be updated, surely
some where there should be a archive kept, so people can add new
packages or re-install existing packages if needed? Same issue for
when 2009 moves to 2010, and when 2010 moves to 2011 etc..

I guess I don't fully understand how come there are no 2008 archives
available (even if they are not updated and are static copies) ...