If I understand correctly, your argument is that its going to take longer now to install a new system because people are going to have to install the core, and then install Perl in a second step.

As a person who uses BSD a great deal, I can tell you that the first thing I do after installing BSD is upgrade perl to the latest version. The reason being that the BSD distribution is stuck in the stone ages with perl 5.005_03. So, if you are happy with perl 5.0, then you have a valid point.. it will take an extra step. But, if you want to be using perl 5.6, then your point is moot because it already takes an extra step anyway.

As Kanji has already pointed out, "divorced from core, us FreeBSD users might finally see a better effort of staying in sync with the current stable version of Perl, rather than waiting for the committers to import it into the FreeBSD source tree or by trying to build our own over an already existing 5.005_03 install." I second that motion.

<Counter-Flame> BSD people are good at making bicycles because thats all they worry about. They don't worry about knowing how to make the best reflector, and they don't sell you a bike with a reflector built in (break the reflector, and you broke the bike). They do, however give you the choice of a lot of other people that are experts in making reflectors and let you choose. Once you have chosen, they'll gladly install that reflector for you (See The FreeBSD ports collection). To me, that's at least part of what Open-Source development is about. </Counter-Flame>

UPDATE Fixed grammar

I agree. In my experience, all of the RH distros install older versions of Perl. After installation, I have to undergo the arduous task of installing the modules I want and need for my server setup using the -MCPAN shell. This decides to update Perl for me, gets it, rebuilds it, and installs a new module tree under the current version number. This is a pain in that all the old installed modules (supplied under the old version number tree) are no longer normally available to the updated binary. This involves the painful ordeal of symlinking the old tree into the new one, making sure not to duplicate module branches. Grr.

Perhaps there's a simpler way of doing this, or perhaps I'm doing something wrong. Perhaps some suggestions would be helpful.

And perhaps if Perl wasn't tightly bundled / integrated with the OS (whatever your distro is), the process of installing, configuring and maintaining your Perl install would be a good bit easier.

-Shawn
(P^h) Phaysis
If idle hands are the tools of the devil, are idol tools the hands of god?

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