Thanks to dmitchell for this link.
“Web programmers feared they could lose one of the underlying
secrets of the Web’s success after Microsoft announced it would pay
California Perl distributor ActiveState Tool to extend Perl’s
performance in Windows.”
“The news triggered an explosion of outrage among developers
after ActiveState announced it was working on ActivePerl
extensions.”
“Developers have come to rely on the free, Open Source language
to build interactive web-sites and a growing number of automated
Internet applications.”