I tried it out.

The first thing worth noting is that it is a beta, so I had a few times where it would lock up for 10 seconds or more. And they got rid of the mini-games list, which is a real bummer to me.

The good news is that it seems to be more efficient- it seems to use less resources if the game has been launched at least one time already. And it launches into the game faster as well (again, if previously been launched by the client).

I don't care for the actual UI itself, but I will say that they seem to have made the client a bit more modular. On the old UI, disabling the UI or friends list netted you no improvements in memory or performance. I've been fiddling around with it and it does use less ram if you don't use those things. This is great news to me, as I want the lightest possible client as possible (and if possible, making it solely DRM and nothing more). That way, when Stardock gets its in-game overlay running, I have the choice of which one to use for my games.

I have to say, I'm somewhat impressed. It's the first time I've really said anything good about Steam. I still consider Impulse my primary source for games when they're available, but I'm a bit more willing to buy cheap Steam games or Steamworks games (something I've been avoiding for a long time now).

open up: steam.styles in Steam/resource/styles and edit to basefontbold=”Arial”.
It's a beta, you need to check the forum.

They're using their own text AA implementation. If there's any way to change it it's going to be steam-specific.

My first thought was "They made it uglier.  Huh."

My second thought was "Well, at least they're acknowledging the problem."

Seriously, is this the best they can do?  It feels so awkward.  I hope for the best, but expect...to stop using Steam, at this point.

Though I am glad it isn't using IE anymore.  I really thought Stardock would end up doing that first.

While I've hit some of the amusing bugs like 'Last played:  Tomorrow' and not-so-amusing ones like 10-30 seconds of freezing by clicking on anything, I'm liking it overall.  I had used the old green theme for years and the UI change itself is refreshing.

I find more that things aren't where they used to be instead of in places that I actually don't like.  Downloads need to be removed from the download section when completed and there's some wonky behavior with auto-suspending them if I launch a game, even if it doesn't need the bandwidth like Sam & Max.

What I've been most impressed with so far is the turnaround time on patching.  Those freezes I had on launch day were gone probably 24 hours later.

And maybe they'll make a TI-89 version of Steam! (or for the new Casios which are far superior IMO)

I just got the new Steam UI Beta this morning, and I love everything about it.  But then, I also love the iPad, LEGO Star Wars, and I loved Vista before 7 came out...