I thought so some time ago (and wrote fou4s). I don't think that this really works - having 10 machines with 4 different suse versions may not seem to be so much, but it is a lot of work to keep them up to date without help. Patch descriptions are not always correct or up to date which is very bad, but this is not very often and normally rather quickly fixed. With Lars' gpd.sh plus fou4s you could even work without them, but it is not so comfortable (e.g. know why the patch was put on ftp).
Obviously not everyone operates on the same lines, you're right that multiple SuSE versions would be more trouble. What I would find really useful is something which also places downloaded packages into a local mirror which can be burned on cd and can also be filled up with rsync, and which uses the local mirror in preference to downloading. It must function without patch descriptions, although they may be used if available. It should run considerably faster than YOU. Handling the kernels, people and supplementary trees would be a real bonus. I admit not having yet tried fou4s. Personally the patch descriptions don't tell me why the patch is there, I already know that ages beforehand by reading the "pending" sections in SuSE's advisories and skimming over bugtraq. Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.orcon.net.nz/ Please do not CC list postings to me.