The best solution here by far is to install vanilla TeX Live as explained in answers on this site and in the official instructions.
There is some confusion, I think. In general, there is a difference between what is needed to build a binary and what is needed to use it. The quotation from biber
's documentation is saying that perl
is not needed to use pre-built binaries. When you try to build the backports package, however, you are trying to build the binary and that is what requires perl
5.16, it seems.
You could obtain the binary from Sourceforge, for example. However, you would need to ensure that you get the right biber
for the version of biblatex
you have. Moreover, you will need to re-backport and recheck etc. each time the backported package is updated.
In contrast, if you install vanilla TeX Live, you can keep everything current using tlmgr
without having to compile anything. This is, to say the least, extremely nice. It also avoids a lot of messing about trying to figure out which package contains what in Debian's ecosystem. (This is not a criticism of Debian's packaging but if you basically want all of TeX Live, say, it is simpler to just install it.)
I think if somebody is happy with the version of TL which their distro provides, sticking with it makes a lot of sense. But once you are unhappy with it, vanilla TL makes a lot more sense IMHO than the alternatives. It is simpler, easier to maintain, more transparent and cleaner. It also allows you to install TeX Live as an unprivileged user, as recommended by upstream. (Note: hardly anybody seems to do this except me but, being me, I think it an advantage.)
Best Answer
With TeX live you can (and should) normally install Biber via
Biber binaries are built for the most common operating systems and are then also available in TeX live.
Ideally you would update your system with
tlmgr update --self --all
after you installed Biber to make sure thatbiblatex
is up to date (so that thebiblatex
and Biber versions match) and that all of its dependencies and allbiblatex
styles are updated as well.In case there was any doubt,
biblatex
should likewise be installed viain TeX live and not manually.