A Windows Programmer Writes ...
According to a Windows programmer of my acquaintance who, to spare his blushes, will remain anonymous here:
" The recognised way of communicating with a POP3 server to retrieve mail is to create an FTP connection and use that connection to send text commands to the POP3 server to download responses and messages. "
The gentleman in question runs a company which "Develops stand alone or networked database applications, inventory databases, CRM systems, and help desk dall (sic) logging."
With developers like that, it's no wonder that the Windows platform has software of such low quality.