another poster …wrote

No comment on what ActiveState is doing,

Since Perl 5.6 is an ancient release in perspective, the only parties likely to still be running a 5.6.X installation are companies with tiny IT staff that are involved in Perl. So your company is one of those and what's more, it is a `MS Windows shop´ so the whole `release early, release often´ notion, along with other parts of the Open Source approach, are probably not familiar memes or logical ideas for the management.

I really think that people who work in Open-Source embracing businesses are happier in their worklife.

Aside from you and your possible plans to now update your resumé, ActiveState has historically had trouble maintaining a good image in the Open Source universe because of problems of various sorts. They might not feel like they have that much to lose by making a choice that penalizes the users of the very old release and the package repository that supports it. It's a logically defensible choice on their part. Another way to do it would have been to say `OK, we'll keep this repo open for free, but every question or complaint that gets directed at our company regarding packages from it will get a formula response to the effect that we've terminated support for this release of Perl (5.6.X), sorry.´

If you're a company with a chequered history of having users speak well of you in the past, a company dealing in support of an Open Source product or products, then it might not seem like that big a deal to invite a little more complaining by a move like this; and you may generate a little bit of additional income in the bargain.

You might want to be aware, at least, of the other options available in Perl distribution kits for MS Windows.