And you are still running another process to handle the NNTP protocol that
Outlook does not support. I suppose if you want your folder tree in Outlook
polluted with newsgroups then the plug-in has value. So your choice will be
to scroll through a long tree to switch between your e-mails and newsgroups
or to flip between the Outlook and OE windows.
You are not "running another process to handle the NNTP protocol that
Outlook does not support".
Outlook does not "support" any particular protocol. Outlook is a shell
which uses transport providers to support protocols. Several transport
providers are included with Outlook, and it may appear to a casual user
that these are somehow an inherent part of Outlook, but they are not.
These transport providers do not run in their own process. Outlook
spawns threads to run them, as it does for many other things, such as
archiving.
Regarding your comment about "polluting" your folder tree with
newsgroups, I've always been amazed at the venom spewed by a few people
in this newsgroup towards using Outlook for newsgroup access.
Some other solutions, like Newshound, are mentioned at
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/news.htm. One failing they neglect to
mention is that Outlook does NOT support the References header and why
threading or grouping of e-mails is by the Subject header (because the
Reference header will be missing for those that used Outlook).
Perhaps because it simply isn't true. Outlook has nothing to do with
the "references" header, or any other header. Again, Outlook is simply
a shell. The transport provider handling the message, whether it's the
Microsoft-supplied POP3 transport or a third party NNTP transport or
whatever, is completely responsible for parsing and storing the message
header and content in whatever manner it chooses. Outlook has no
involvement in that whatsoever.
For the record, NewsHound does use the references header to properly
thread newsgroup discussions.
