For the most part, Perl is Perl.
Some of us would
insist that a *NIX box (that includes RedHat) is the best
platform to learn and use Perl on ... but that is not true.
There are plenty of monks who are happy using Windows boxes
and ActiveState. The bottom line is ... it doesn't matter.
Do what ever is most comfortable for you. For what it is
worth,
merlyn, the author of the Llama book uses the
OSX operating system on a Mac laptop.
jeffa