I agree, but part of the problem is that CPAN is old, i.e. it's been around for years, so you can find very out-of-date documentation and advice on the web abou

I agree, but part of the problem is that CPAN is old, i.e. it's been around for years, so you can find very out-of-date documentation and advice on the web about how to install packages. For example, if you find a page suggesting you run 'perl -MCPAN -e shell', and you try using that, you'll probably have a very bad time. Watch out for it trying to upgrade perl itself! There are newer, saner and nicer ways to access CPAN and install packages. There's also possible conflicts between CPAN and your distribution's own packaged perl modules, but that's a common problem with any software you install yourself rather than through the distro's packaging scheme.