I'm pretty sure the Ubuntu setup is the same as that of any other Debian-based linux distribution.

The default version of perl depends on which version of Ubuntu you're using. Ubuntu 8.04LS uses Perl 5.8.8. I *think* Ubuntu 9.04 comes with Perl 5.10.

You have to be real careful if you try to upgrade perl on an older distribution, because the OS uses perl-based scripts for certain things - so changing the system perl can break your whole installation. Installing from source (into an area like /opt or /usr/local) is probably the best way to go. Or else upgrade Ubuntu until you get a version that comes with the perl you want!

The main reason I have for using the package manager (for apache) is that it makes life easier if you start installing multiple apache modules (mod_rewrite, mod_ssh, mod_dav, etc) - many of those have multiple dependencies on other libraries, etc. Trying to get everything built without any conflicts takes a lot of time and energy - all easily avoided by simply using the package manager.