as the topic title says, what would be a good / simple CMS without the need for mysql, written in perl or php? (template driven, fully changable look.)

http://www.flipsource.org/

I haven't actually used it... but from what I can tell it's not bad.
It major difference from most CMSs is that it stores everything in text files, so it doesn't need a database.

I'd imagine it has some sort of template system too.

tnx, this is the first promising thingy i saw so far

got it working somehow, it is a bit on the simple side and html output is a mess, but still nice try, check:
http://somestuff.org/flip/
(there is no much there yet, and it is kinda slow), comments welcome (user experience type).

p.s. yeah, iam afraid 'template system' was editing source php files...

Another blogging software (not much of a real CMS, I know), which doesn't need MySQL or PHP, is Greymatter.
Still very customizable and powerful.

wow, nice, this one will be quite an enterprise to even install corectly, but at least there are some forums where one could ask for help, tnx, and keep them coming.

edit:
nm, fixed.

Interesting topic since I've been looking for a solution to interactively display up-to-date information on a remote beamer without the user seing all the action; just the resulting changes. Intended use: at a rather large LAN party.

I've been eyeing phpnuke, but that seems to be well over the top (and btw needs all the mysql goodies, but that is one more hassle to configure and maintain). A (multiuser?) blogging system might be just what we need.

flip is multiuser, but you will have to figure out how to set that properly with lack of any documentation, still it is quite easier to hack around that some other systems i was trying.

edit: so far i found this 'bugs':
http://somestuff.org/flip/current.php?keyword=bugs