February 4, 2026
Boring code, spicy comments
Fastmail Donates USD 10k to the Perl and Raku Foundation
Fans cheer, skeptics ask who uses Perl, and a "lifetime" plan ghost crashes the party
TLDR: Fastmail donated $10,000 to the Perl & Raku Foundation, keeping Perl 5’s maintenance afloat and reopening $10k community grants for 2026. Comments split between gratitude and nostalgia, debates over whether anyone still uses Perl, and a side-eye about Fastmail’s ‘lifetime’ plans—proof that quiet tech still sparks loud opinions.
Fastmail just dropped $10k to the Perl and Raku Foundation to keep the quiet work on Perl 5 alive, after a rough year where grants were paused and core maintenance was at risk. Fastmail’s Ricardo Signes praised Perl’s boring upgrades—you update and everything still works—earning cheers from long‑time users. One fan shouted “Thanks Fastmail!” while another waved a banner: “Long live Perl,” declaring it their favorite CLI (command‑line) scripting language. The mood: grateful, nostalgic, and a little petty, exactly how internet comments like it.
Then the skeptics arrived. One commenter claimed, “I have never met a single developer who actively works with Perl,” wondering if it left a COBOL‑sized legacy or just faded. Nostalgia added drama: a user switched to Fastmail back in ’03 because it used Perl, but grumbled their “lifetime” plan was sunset. And because it’s 2026, someone called out alleged bot posts—cue eye rolls and popcorn. Meanwhile, TPRF says the donation keeps maintenance humming and lets them reopen community grants with $10k for 2026, if more sponsors join. The takeaway: if your deployment is boring, it’s because Perl’s caretakers are doing the exciting, thankless work—and the comments are doing everything else. Bring popcorn and strong opinions.
Key Points
- •Fastmail donated USD 10,000 to TPRF to support Perl 5 core maintenance after funding shortfalls in 2025.
- •TPRF had paused its community grants program and risked pausing Perl 5 core maintenance due to budget constraints.
- •Ricardo Signes stated Perl’s stability and backward compatibility as reasons for Fastmail’s continued support.
- •Fastmail has also provided free email hosting services to TPRF for many years.
- •TPRF will re-open its community grants program in 2026 with USD 10,000, with potential to increase funding if more sponsors participate.