Overall I'm basically okay with this update, but there are some things that bug me a bit. I don't like that the page selection is gone when viewing a list of threads. You have to click the date to get to the last post, or the title to get to the first post. Nothing in between, and it seems a little unusual.
The biggest thing I miss though are the links to threads started by or posts made by a specific user. I know you can do this with the search feature, but if I saw someone mention a previous post\thread of theirs, it was nice to be able to just click their name and click a button to see their previous posts.
Also, is there a way to see the full list of smilies? It seems really weird to have to basically guess at letters by typing out random things after a : until you find something applicable. Also, some smilies don't actually show as smilies until you preview or submit your post. For example, :lol: doesn't get the smiley drop-down box thing when I type it, so I honestly didn't know it worked until just now.
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.