Yep, you found it[]/testimages/icons/laugh.gif[/]. The PHP version is definitely easier to install as you don't have the modules to worry about. And it holds its own against PERL running under mod_perl without the extra requirements.
Anywho, my personal feelings on it are that I love PERL. It's the language I learned in. Give tne choice in coding many applications I'd take PERL everytime. They asked me what I thought the better choice was to take this thing to the next level and I said PHP. Trust me, I never thought I'd say that but PHP for web apps truly is easier at least in my view. But, everyone has their preferences and I've seen plenty of battles of PHP sucks, PERL rules, vice-versa.