Originally Posted by Airbot

It just doesn't make sense to me.

They want to move to the elegant, minimalistic/simplistic way of Metro all of the sudden in WP7 and Win 8, but then they want to use an overly-cluttered/anti-simplistic Ribbon in Explorer for Win 8.

Talk about a contradiction.

Many correlations here can be madeto the intro of office 2007 when discussing the new explorer ribbon interface, so here I go...

I was pissed about the change to office at first as well... I have used MS office since the Mid 80's, and it took a long time searching to find things I used to know by heart.

However, take it from me (a CIS Instructor)... the interface is more logical, more user friendly, more intuitive than ever before. New users pick up on it must faster than the hidden drop downs of previous versions. Its us older more experienced users that it gave fits to.

Resistance is futile, and once I got over that hump... I loved the new interface!

Good points, and I have to agree. I hated it until I started using it for a while.

Resistance is futile.

Originally Posted by Airbot

It's old news, but The Office Ribbon in Explorer...puke. What a mess.

I would like to know who's horrid idea that was.

Please tell me I will be able to change it back to a Win 7-ish theme.

Yes, if it's like Office 2010, there will be a small arrow on the upper right that will hide it.
I would be surprised if that option wasn't included, I use it all the time, best of both worlds.

Originally Posted by biggles1000

I liked the Office 2007 ribbon (to an extent), but I find the Office 2010 ribbon to be rather a step back, shoving it even more "in the user's face"...

I have both versions of office (actually I have every version dating back to office 2.0) and the only difference I know of off the bat, is that in 2010 they did away with the "office button" AKA: Office Orb... and in its place put the File tab.
I honestly feel they did it for all of us old office users, that was always the first question when introducing office 2007 to a group that had experience with a previous version of office!

Hope it's fully customizable.

I'll be satisfied if, along with the up-arrow to hide the Ribbon, there's also a QuickAccess Toolbar, like the one in the Office apps.

That would please greeks and trojans