I have to confess that #6 is near and dear to my heart. Because on many of our systems it is not a matter of "installing locally"...it's a matter of how to get it onto the system in the first place since our security policies are strictly enforced (both automatically and manually).

It is not too problematic when the module is pure Perl. The IT folks have been accomodating with that.

But any modules that have to be brought in and compiled or as binaries are not allowed...no matter where I'd like or try to put them. We actually have IT programs that crawl though every nook and cranny of our system looking for binaries or "executable" modules...no matter what the extensions...and will auto-delete them!

They have allowed us to use Perl and the built-in modules all we want and to create and use pure Perl scripts...but nothing else.

So I have had to abandon using many, many of the modules I'd love to have access to and stick to either the built-ins or the pure Perl modules.

So #6 isn't as easy or as universal as you might suggest.

But I still find your observations (including #6) to be good counter-points to the normal comments...even when I've sometimes thought about not using available modules outside of our controlled systems.

Your summary was really very illuminating for me. Thanks.