The redesign must have been done by a group of people with no understanding of user needs. The new icons are sufficiently different that it is hard to determine which to use for what. There is a reason that teh QUERTY keyboard is still around - there is a huge number of users that have adapted to it and any change requires massive retraining. Ditto with user interfaces. Given the lack of concern Microsoft has for its current users, I would say that now is a good time to bite the bullet and transfer to alternative applications.
