TBH, I liked the menu system in XP coz you don't have to click submenus and stuff, you just move your cursor and the submenus appear a lot. You just adjust the menu delay setting and it comes up very quickly.
With Win7, I use search function and the recently used programs a lot more.
As for the ribbon in windows explorer, I think it is just the same as the old menu style. I don't see it being better to be honest.