Yes, of course one would. Because exec(3) isn't implemented on Windows so Perl emulates it by spawning a subprocess and then having the parent process exit. That is the best that can be done without something much more heavy-handed like cygwin.

So the choices on Windows are: 1) Use system then exit and have an extra process hanging around, 2) Use exec and realize that the calling process won't be able to wait because the middle process will quickly exit, 3) Use cygwin Perl.