The particular syntax and tool set of Perl is of minimal importance in this bigger picture

I agree about the importance of the bigger picture. But the original question wasn't about the bigger picture, it was about one small portion of it. He wants to learn Perl. As I implied, and many of the other posts pointed out more explicitly, Perl is extremely portable among different operating systems.

So the fine details of which operating system he uses are important, and will impact his daily computer usage, but I believe they're outside the scope of this discussion. It's pretty obvious that you disagree with me on that one point, but hopefully now you'll actually understand the point I was trying to make. Or maybe you'll write another long post that I agree with 90% but still think this is the wrong place for it. :-)