Does this snub from Microsoft give PERL less credibilty than other software that is enterprise class like WORD or INTERNET EXPLORER?

Well, actually, Microsoft helped to fund the initial work to bring Perl to Windows. They also distributed it with their Windows NT Resource kits. In fact, rather than speak for Microsoft, you can see their opinion here.

Oddly, enough though, Microsoft never distributes Word with any version of Windows I've seen at a store. Maybe I shouldn't use Word either.

;-)

  rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current/ .
  ./Configure -des -Dusedevel -Dprefix=/path/to/test/perl
  make test
  make install

perlbug at perl.org