[Arainach]

I find the Ribbon's contextual options perfect. When I'm at the root of My Computer, it's useful to see "Map Network Drive". When I'm in any other location, I don't care about that, so it's gone. When I click on a ZIP file it's useful to see options for extraction, etc.

The Ribbon is far more useful for new users. It's true that if you memorized the Excel 97 menu layout you may not find things exactly where they were, but most users would never have been able to find things they wanted in the menu anyway.

My experience is that people who complain about the ribbon largely use keyboard shortcuts (which still exist) anyway, if they've even used Windows in the last decade.

[Lammy]

Maybe people will like the Ribbon more if reminded that it replaced an MSIE-powered sidebar.

[efreak]

The ribbon replaced menus. These menus no longer exist. The sidebars also no longer exist, but they didn't have as much functionality as the menus did.