However, Luis you say “still presents that functionality in a way that normal human beings can wrap their heads around” but your mistake is assuming your experience corresponds to that of “normal human beings”. You are not a normal human being, you are a highly technical user. So far I’ve only heard bad things about the 2007 office UI from what I would consider to be normal human beings (professionals whos primary focus is not computers).

Personally I like the new UI as well, but I’m not about to imagine that most non-technical users like it (since I’ve heard overwhelming personal reports to the contrary). This might just be a fear of change though.

However, I still think that the ribbon isn’t that great of an interface. It’s an improvement, but I don’t think it really makes a big difference to most people. Features have been re-organized based on years of experience, but the fundamental problem of discoverability still remains. Ribbon tabs or menus, there is not much of a difference when it comes to finding some specific features. You still end up searching slowly through all the options tab by tab. The UI overhaul could have been so much better with intelligent integrated search-based menus, but ohwell.