"The ribbon is context-sensitive."
That means it hides disabled options.
And THAT means if an option you want is disabled (therefore hidden), you'll spend 20 minutes searching for it!

"The ribbon is meant to keep your tools ready."
That means it doesn't make you open the drawer every time for your tools.
And THAT means you have 40% of the screen taken by some 50x50px buttons for things you already memorized shortcuts for, even when you're using a 14" 16:9 LCD screen!

"The ribbon has pre-thought layouts for your clicks to be quicker"
That means most common functions are brought to you in easy to find menus.
And THAT means there is a tiny corner reserved for your 20 VBA-programmed macro buttons, while 40% of the screen is for activities that newbies don't understand quite well, like "copy", "open" and "increase font size"!

"Yes you have to learn where things are in the new ribbon (more of an issue for those coming from older programs than everybody)"...

I guess older programs mean all other applications ever made besides Office 2007! Windows 7 will come with two more ribboned appz right?

"Considering that I would expect so many people reading this site to be tech savy and involved in technology in some way or another I am amazed that there is so much aversion to change. After all IT is about (pretty constant) change..."

Dig deeper friend. Change itself is not what tech people are against; check the reactions for Windows 7. It is BAD change which makes computer work & play more time-consuming that riles people up.

I'm glad Mozilla is not trying to play a mindless game of "follow the leader"!

Cheers

What's wrong with five small nav buttons, a URL box, a search box and a tab bar?

How is that confusing? And even if it is, how will a ribbon removing these icons make it less confusing?

And get used to it. Loosers!

In theory ribbon is good, but MS forgot how the HUMAN BRAIN works.
It is allways better to know where you have to go to find something than a toolbar changing frenetically whenever you click somewhere. Consistency is a good thing for our brains.
And if your are able to switch ribbon and menu UI as you like (without installing 3rd party addons) it would make a point, but no. Microsoft screwed it forcing everyone to use the worst UI. MS did not learn.

"Why did we memorize shortcuts?"

Because I want to use two hands to manipulate my interface not shuffle a mouse around the screen for everything.

"we had to waste our time finding out what obscure menu it was hidden in"

Obscure menus? I would have thought that if you had a few brain cells most menu's are pretty damn easy to figure out. Here's a few pointers:

Edit - relates to editing.
View - Relates to how you view the page.
Bookmarks - Do I even have to go on?

I vote +1 for leave the bloody interface alone.

@Rek: It's easier because the ribbon is context sensitive, meaning that it doesn't even show menu items which would otherwise be disabled, or be more appropriate as their own generic menu. So while in Office 2003 you'd fish through a menu and avoid the disabled menu items that are not relevant to the current selection, on the Ribbon, those items are just not there. Can you imagine the right-mouse button "context menu" not being context specific? Why accept that for your menus as well?

@Motoman: Your comment is nothing more than a rant, containing ZERO points on why you think the ribbon is bad. Back up your statements.

@Ruben Huges: Do you honestly think a menu has less clicks, let alone an Office menu? What does an Office menu do? It just disables items that you can't use. The ribbon is context sensitive, so you don't have to fish through multiple menus of active and disabled items, as well as dialogues to change or insert something. Shortcut keys? They're still there. Yes, your beloved Office 2003 (yes, I know you said OO, but bear with me) shortcuts are still supported in Office 2007. Hit Alt-I, O, F, etc. it still works. Only now, when you *don't* know the sequence by heart, you can find it without asking Clippy to guide your mouse to the appropriate item.

The Menu and the Ribbon represent two different paradigms. The menu *hides* information and function away until you need it. The ribbon keeps it out in the open so you can access it. When you're editing a document, do you really want your tools put away? It's like having to take a hammer out of a drawer every time you want to hammer a new nail into a board. Why did we memorize shortcuts? Because it was such a pain to fish around and find those tools. For the less used ones, we had to waste our time finding out what obscure menu it was hidden in, maybe even wade through some tabs as well.

Try it out, try doing something new instead of a memorized command, and see what is easier to figure out: the menu, or the ribbon.

Ruben, you might want to take another look.

You said: "This is similar to a menu, but worse. With a menu, one can use the keyboard to manipulate it (for example, in openoffice, alt+i,o,f inserts a formula, and alt+i,u,f inserts a picture from file). With a ribbon, it's entirely mouse based (like a toolbar). "

The Alt keys still work just fine. If you can't remember (or don't know) what they are, hold the Alt key and they will appear.

A toolbar is supposed to give you access to commonly used functions in a single click. The concept of a ribbon is contrary to the concept of a toolbar - effectively requiring multiple clicks to get the desired function.

This is similar to a menu, but worse. With a menu, one can use the keyboard to manipulate it (for example, in openoffice, alt+i,o,f inserts a formula, and alt+i,u,f inserts a picture from file). With a ribbon, it's entirely mouse based (like a toolbar). It effectively takes the worst features of a menu and of a toolbar and shoves them together.

I would be very disappointed if firefox got a ribbon. Hell, I'd probably start a fork of 3.5 that didn't have one...

Ribbons look like somebody pooped buttons all over them. I guess menus are "too hard to use" but tell me, how is it any easier to find something when you have to know which tab to go to, which section to look in, and the thing you're looking for is probably an indecipherable icon with no label?

"Writing in his blog, Faaborg described how Firefox will instead rely on a pair of buttons at the right side of the toolbar, one labeled 'Page' the other 'Tools'... So it seems that Mozilla isn't drinking the Volish koolaid after all."

You mean, just like IE7 from 2006?

@steve: Up yours.

The ribbon set back GUI efficiency 20 years. It's total crap. In every way. With no redeeming qualities.

It makes everything harder, and makes nothing as efficient as it used to be.

Greatest fail in Office ever concieved. Office 2007 is utterly unusable because of it.

I tried to live with Office 2007 to make sure I had ample time to get used to it. I didn't. Uninstalled and reinstalled 2003.

Any future product that forces ribbons upon me will not be purchased. Ever. I like to be able to work with my computer, not fight with it.

Sitting in a meeting room, looking at the company's CEO's laptop run Excel on a 14" 16:9 LED LCD screen with 40% of the pixels showing a clumsy ribbon is enough to think anyone who likes it is a brainless moron.

kthxbye

Sanity at last. The MS apps with the so call "Ribbon" make me less productive, not more.

That device has to be the absolute worst software idea since the stupid dogie of XP search fame: Absolutely no benefit.

Thank you Mozilla for stopping this globular sprawl of uselessness...

Thank you.

As to Nikeo's comment... Grow up knuckle draggier... The world does not run on people who only have to write memo's for a living...

Adds: Pants in my cornflakes?
Crunchy Nutter is so irresistable that you release the shackles of adult behaviour?! A Bathing Ape in Shark Track hoodie, I think it was the Fete of July. We don't need no spotty ribbons.

+1

Also @everyone who moans: please stfu and learn. It takes what? A day or so? fucktards.

OS X- esque thinking?

Clueless.

OS X refinements to the GUI have been made for performance enhancements and new additions to aid usage.

Your speaking like a Linux user which too me speaks volumes of phail.

Stacy:
"After all IT is about (pretty constant) change..."
What's wrong with j000, you never have to upgrade lunix! It's perrrrrrrrfect0rz and haxx0rs pr00f! IT people get it easy with lunix becuz no brain is required it jsut sits thar wurking lol

Stop with the adverts in the RSS feed. It's annoying and pointless, since most people have ad blockers anyway.

Uh, Tools and Page button? That is an obvious rip-off of Google Chrome. So they are copying Chrome instead of Office now. Way to be original and innovative... Ran out of stuff to copy from Opera? ;)

Firefox used to be awesome.

But then, slowly, it has become a piece of buggy bloatware.

The developers have lost the plot with it. It consumes far too much memory and crashes.

IE8 is better at the moment.

I don't get why people are so against the ribbon.

Yes you have to learn where things are in the new ribbon (more of an issue for those coming from older programs than everybody) but the fact that I can get to so may options in Word / Excel without going through 3 different levels of menus, followed by clicking 'Advanced' in the dialog to get a new dialog, followed by clicking the required tab within that new dialog makes life so much easier. (Yes that was a deliberately exagerated example in order to press my point home, no I can't tell you what option I am talking about - spot the implicit sarcasm tags please)

Considering that I would expect so many people reading this site to be tech savy and involved in technology in some way or another I am amazed that there is so much aversion to change. After all IT is about (pretty constant) change...

SDFJKLSDJKLFJSDKLfd

We HAVE a stable interface now. What the hell is wrong with the bar as is? How about you work on fixing bugs and HTML 5.0 compliance instead of dicking around with something that works.

THIS is why computers crash. Never mind the tens of thousands of bug reports out there, let's go ahead and redo the GUI. That's Microsoft-esque (and OS X-esque) thinking at its finest.

The 'ribbon' idea is basically flawed. It means that the user interface is in a state of constant flux. The user interface has to be 'stable', which means consistent.
Perhaps the 'ribbon' concept is the epitomy of the Vole approach of 'volatile' software.....