I am sort of late coming in on this, but have been following along with interest... . There are a lot of good points made throughout this discussion, technical and otherwise. I have learned a fair amount just reading through all of them. I appreciate that...

I have experienced fustrations with ActiveState as well. Usually on winxx of some flavor. I have seldom experienced such problems on *nix platforms using CPAN, but it has happended.

On the other hand, ActiveState has been a real time saver (productivity enhancer) for the most part. I really appreciate what they have done and are doing.

That being said, I also think that Ovid has identified real issues and has taken the time and made the effort to come up with a solution to those issues, and done a good job of explaining the motivation for his efforts. It seems to me that it is a rational response to frustration, and pretty much reflects the attitude that has driven the open source community forward for so long... If it frustrates you, or you just don't like it... well change it if you can, and share the opportunity with others. Over the long haul, the worst that can happen is something useless is created, the best thing that can happen is that some problems get solved and another option becomes available... .

Thanks again to everyone that posted for providing some enlightening points of view and interesting technical points.