we have a Foxpro Application and need to share data accross the web and read it in to a MySQL DB. After a user has edited it (no problem there) it should be transferred back.

I guess using Foxpro is the real wtf here =)

Anyway, as already stated you cannot use OLE on the linux server side easily, so I suggest that you create some kind of Server/API on the application machine and let your webserver communicated with that, instead of directly to the DB. Then you can use any protocoll you want and you abstract away database specicfic code on your webserver.

You get the idea. The possibilities for implementing this are endless. Chose from plain get/post, soap, xml-rpc, csv, or whatever for transportation and HTTP::Server::Simple, Catalyst, Jifty, etc. for the code. Writing a simple CRUD application with one of the advanced frameworks is a piece of cake. You should be able to set one up within minutes. While I'm at it, I think I should also point you at DBD::Xbase, just in case you didn't already know about it.

update: I forgot to mention, if you for whatever reason still need to use COM and OLE (yes they belong together) have a look at the Perl Dev Kit