Can you install programs without apt packages?

["Scott" <sds@webpipe.net>]

Hi, 

I am fairly new to the Linux world and am going through all of the 
documentation and installation info for Debian 3.0. 

I will have a system that is going to be offline and probably never 
connected to the internet.  Am I going to be able to choose source files and 
tarballs, etc. to compile on this system offline, or am I going to be 
screwed on updating since I will not have an internet connection on it for a 
while? 

Just curious, as I don't see this in the docs or forums.  I see everyone 
loving apt-get and Gentoo's portage, but that is not going to work on my 
current setup.  In the future, yes, but I don't know how long it will be. 

Scott