Judge was baffled by OOXML files, beardies claim

THE UK'S HIGH Court was wrong to throw out a legal challenge to Microsoft's OOXML document standard, the software giant's opponents said today.

The UK Unix User Group announced today that it would appeal a High Court decision not to grant it a judicial review of the British Standards Institutes's decision to back OOXML as an international standard.

"UKUUG is appealing that decision since it believes that the judge was wrong in his reading of the papers," said the UKUUG in a statement.

"OOXML is riddled with technical holes," said the statement. "Adopting OOXML would be like setting to sea in a sieve".

The group said the BSI shouldn't have supported OOXML, that it swept the standards technical flaws, numbered in the hundreds, under the carpet in order to give it a stamp of approval.

The standard was being used by Microsoft as a barrier to competitors getting a piece of its market, said the statement. The group is still trying to raise money to fund its action. Microsoft's standard was given approval in a multinational vote at the International Standards Organisation. Four countries are contesting the award. µ