To re-iterate the point: DBI lets you use a multitude of Database interfaces (ODBC, ADO, or an interface written for a specific database such as Oracle or Sybase or even CSV files).

Additional Note I forgot to put in my original reaply: The reason I point this out is that sometimes ODBC works better, sometimes ADO works better, and sometimes the native driver works best. (I've had many problems trying to call Oracle functions using ODBC, although they work fine using the Oracle driver or ssometimes ADO.)

Also: Win32::ODBC hasn't been updated in a few years (the version with ActivePerl is from 1997).