Why switch from 5 zto 7 when we can switch to Perl 32, much like Java did?

Sure, that's a possibility. I guess my post is more about the features than the version numbering. OTOH, many versioning schemes will only switch major version numbers for major features, and so I was thinking the other way around: if Perl 5 wanted to go to Perl 7, what features would warrant that? As kind of a motivation to get those features out of experimental status :-)

As for the "batteries included", I think a Perl::BatteriesIncluded module is a nice idea. Although I included that point somewhat reluctantly, since of course people will have different ideas for what their favorite bundle is, I think that giving new users of the language a set of proven modules to start with is a good idea. ("What do you mean, I have to download and install a bunch of modules just to do OO?") I.e. for newbies, TIMTOWTDIBSCINABTE...