I've had a quick look at some of the available material on the forthcoming Microsoft Office 2007.
What concerns me is the lack of menus. Although I confess to not having spent enough time with the actual betas to make what might be considered an informed opinion, I am still concerned!
Most new markets (in computing or otherwise) go through a period of considerable experimentation before settling on what becomes the standard form. This is clear with many industries. For instance, consider car manufacturing. Just recall how many differently shaped and sized cars were built in the early days. Nothing seemed certain - not the number of wheels, not where the engine was, not what the "new contraption" was for, etc. Today, we take for granted what a car actually is and should be. The product form has become stable. We know what to expect.
The problem with modern office software is that we now expect a menu system. I'm not sure how users will respond if that's taken away from them...
It laudable that Microsoft are trying to make the product easier to use and to help users discover what it can do (bearing in mind most users haven't got a clue how much the current version can actually do).
However, I'm not sure I would be so bold as to remove the menus...
It will be interested whether the interface becomes a new paradigm that heralds a seismic shift in how we interact with software or whether it withers away like the much vaunted "single click for everything" that was meant to spell the end of double-clicking from Windows 98 onwards (anyone actually using that?)
Time will tell...