Opinions are cheap, so I guess I'll offer mine. Patents are one thing I know next to nothing about, so that may be a game stopper to begin with, as Richard pointed out. I may be in the minority here, but in general I think the ribbon toolbar is a useful improvement for Microsoft products (at least Excel, Word, and Powerpoint). It makes sense to me since it allows easier access to all of those functions hidden 4 menu items deep. For this reason, I personally dislike using older MS Word, for example, and don't find Open/Libre Office to be any better (I think a ribbon interface would be a big improvement for libreoffice). Then again, I prefer to use LyX over either of those, but when I don't have a choice I prefer Word with the ribbon interface.
Despite my generally favorable opinion of the ribbon toolbar, however, I do not find myself wishing for it in LyX. I like the icons, and leave them there, but typically find myself using keyboard shortcuts as soon as I can learn them. My biggest concern about the ribbon toolbar is that it eats up your vertical screen real-estate. Unfortunately, monitors seem to be getting wider, not taller. All that said, I would of course be interested to see how it turned out if someone were to undertake the endeavor. I might be pleasantly surprised. Jacob
