I would heartilly disagree... it's quite possible to have a single httpd binary and two config files. Perhaps you should read the article I mentioned about properly setting this up...

I would argue that this is as easy, if not easier than so-called "application servers" (Note: the only branded "application server" I have ever worked with is Vignette's Story Server (awful), so perhaps I am just jaded by that term)

Or, perhaps, I'm just spoiled by having access to the apache internals w/o having to code in c.

Besides, your initial gripe was about heavy procs being network bound. That is a sign of a poorly set up mod_perl shop. The proxy solution winnows that gripe down to "but then I have to maintain another conf file" which carries about 1/1000th the weight of your original complaint.

-Blake