From: PerlFAQ Server on
This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq2.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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2.15: Where can I buy a commercial version of perl?

In a real sense, perl already *is* commercial software: it has a license
that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
better for everyone.

However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual
obligations. Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from
several sources if that will help. For example, many Perl books include
a distribution of perl, as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both
the Unix flavor and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix
distributions also all come with perl.



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