I think Microsoft's (quite valid) argument is that you don't necessarily know what functionality you miss. I remember back in Office 2007's infancy they published some metrics which showed that most users used a minute fraction of the functionality. This in itself is no surprise, and probably follows in any large app, but importantly that doesn't mean people aren't quietly craving for things. The ribbon is a great way for promoting exploreability, and the galleries and such are a nice way to let people play around and see how things manifest.cwathen wrote:I'd argue though that the biggest thing Office 2010 needs is a 'classic mode' which gets rid of the ribbons and tabs and makes it look like a traditional application with toolbars and pull down menus. Why is this needed? Much as I understand the argument that modern versions of Office have spawned so many features that I rethink of the UI was needed, the simple fact is that the average person doesn't actually use (or even know how to use) even half the features it has - although I use Office 2003, in all honesty I could probably kick back to Office 97 (even earlier than that were it not for the different file formats) and not really miss anything.
Also, as Pete said, it is being extended across more of Win7 and is becoming increasingly easy for third parties to implement. IMO the main reason it hasn't yet taken off is mainly because most apps just don't have enough functionality to benefit from such a scaleable interface.
