bill - 7:01 am on Jan 7, 2010 (gmt 0)

The ribbon interface is here to stay I'm afraid. Even the upcoming Mac version of Office is supposed to switch to the ribbon. That's the interface you'll have to get used to going forward, like it or not.

I didn't like it at first either. It does take some getting used to, but I can work with it just fine now. It is designed to be intuitive for the user, and after a bit of use I realized the changes are not as bad as I initially thought. I reacted much the same way as most in the beginning. It wasn't initially intuitive to me either after more than a decade working with Office products. If you give the interface a chance it will grow on you.

To stay on topic...
I don't think the ribbon interface is big draw feature for most Office users who would be upgrading. Initial reactions from experienced users tend to be negative.