I haven't got a clue what Xerces or LibXML are or why anyone would want to use them, but installing and using other XML modules was easy and straightforward enough, insofar as using XML is easy (YMMV). GD is certainly a doddle, plug and play all the way, as is apache and mod_perl. 3 minutes to download and install, edit the configs and Bob's yer uncle. I can't imagine what arcane configurations have pushed you beyond your pain threshold.

As for Cygwin, as I said, my machine is three years old (450 MHz I believe) and the cygwin tools all run quickly for me. About as fast as they do on any Linux or Solaris box, although i haven't timed them specially.

On the other hand, I wouldn't touch IIS and ASP with a ten-foot pole.

Regards,
Helgi Briem