I like it and have wanted something like this since I started using the site four, almost five, years ago. It's really outdated and unwelcoming to new users. There's no character to the front pages. Reddit's designers/coders/whatever have said that the current design is a mess to write new features in and that the redesign is much more organized in that aspect.

The new design does still need work. Performance issues are a big problem for a lot of people and CSS, while unnecessary to me, are necessary to many people who have worked hard to make their subreddits look how they want. Ads are something Reddit needs to continue running and while they should be colored to stand out instead of blending in with other posts, it really isn't that big of a deal. I haven't had one instance where I click on an ad because I thought it looked like a post.

Really, the redesign just makes everything cleaner and adds a few things which I've always thought are much needed.

• The left sidebar is fantastic and makes it so much easier to get to different subreddits.
• Instant chat is a much better way of messaging users (which has always been possible except now it's instant and people are complaining for some reason lol).
• Personally I like that posts open in a lightbox because it's easier to get back to the feed, but I can see why people wouldn't want it and it should be an option (if it doesn't end up being an option you can always just open links in a new tab or click the timestamp).
• The new rich text editor is something Reddit has needed for a long time and is going to be much better for new users to learn over markdown.
• Changing the density of your feed (card, compact, classic) is a great thing for people who prefer big pictures or just want to use Reddit like how it's always been. I do think the default should be compact, though.