To install a perl from scratch on a debian box is realy a Bad Thing to do.

Debian relays heavily on Perl for a lot of administrative tasks such as installing and configuring packets. Changing the perl version that the systems expects could (and almost certanly will) lead to disaster.

I'm not an expert at all, but I'm not sure that it is quite that bad of an idea, if you keep the two Perls separate in a logical way. On my Debian box, I had to compile my own version of Perl in order to compile my own mod_perled Apache (a long story). I followed, more or less, the advice in the node the OP cited. I now have a homegrown Perl running in /opt/perl/bin, and the standard Debian perl still in /usr/perl/bin, with /usr/local/bin/perl symlinked to /opt/perl/bin/perl.

I don't know enough about this to really give any solid advice, but so far, nothing horrible has happened, despite numerous very Debian-esque activities with apt-get and friends.

Just my $0.015

s-t

Update Corrected some of my minor stupidities

UPDATE 2: After a few weeks using this dual perl system, I still haven't had any system related problems. Debian seems to be doing just fine with its stock Debian perl.

On the other hand, I have had some trouble installing certain modules with the new perl, in /opt, though I am not sure this is related to the dual install.

Update 3 The problems installing modules were not the result of a conflict between the two perls, but just a demonstration that things are harder outside of Debian.