The Ribbon is a much better UI because it takes up less room, makes more features more accessible, and provides much better discoverability. To appreciate the pros and cons, I'd suggest going though the full account of the development [1], though there is a simpler intro/index [2] that links to a good video [3].
Of course, there's also personal taste, and you are perfectly entitled to prefer whichever menu system you like. However, the Ribbon won a decade ago, so at this stage, it would probably be more useful to learn how to make better use of it. My Alt tip is just one example.
[1] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jensenh/2008/03/13/table-of...
[2] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jensenh/2008/03/12/the-stor...