Windows 7's Start Menu is far from bad, it's just that it's both outdated and clunky. The current Win7 taskbar is nice, but I'd rather have the small shortcuts that show up above the "All Programs" and Instant Search bars removed completely, and JUST have the list. It's also a tad slow in opening. Even then, I run Executer, which both comes up faster, and looks far nicer then the current Start Menu.
Windows 8's Start Menu, once people stop griping about how it looks, I can see being very nice for icon-clickers. Once they add the ability to add a shortcut to that without needing to edit anything, it'll actually be far more useful than the current one. But the main problem is that...many of the things we're used to that ALL OS's have is that the powerdown, restart, sleep, hibernate buttons/links are no longer there. That alone will frustrate more people than it's worth. Microsoft may be trying to make it to where people don't need to shutdown that often, but they're forgetting that it takes a lot of electricity to keep something running.
You people who use the desktop for all of your shortcuts...the Metro-style Start Menu is EXACTLY that, and will BE that once it's finished. Just without the desktop. Now tell me which is easier, tapping the Windows button/clicking or getting to the desktop and then finding it. ...Arguably, both would take the same time, sometimes.