After perusing this thread and the previous, this is what I've discovered:

Answer #1 is apparently: Only stupid people need a menu bar.

Answer #2 is: But everything is still there

Answer #3 is: It "saves space".

In response to #1, I used to come to web forums for help accomplishing certain tasks. When I first started, the Adobe forums were a newbie's dream. People were friendly, other people would bump your post if they had the same question, highly regarded pros in the field in question would get on and give you great tips.

Did I mention that people were friendly? That's an important part. Everything changed about 2003 or so, people started turning into major pricks and seemed more interested in calling you names

To sum it all up:

I was using Opera until about a year ago, from the days when it was a beta product. They used to be innovative, but I quit because it became a top heavy piece of crap that STILL didn't work with many websites. I got tired of playing the games, waiting for realistic support. I thought maybe they would have cleaned their act up, and I really missed my mouse gestures. Besides, I had wondered about the lack of a menu bar, and found a single a-hole on the Chrome "help" forums who did the same thing as Pasela, and decided that he'd play the A-hole in charge. It's like I'm on an Apple message board...

Also: If you don't have an actual answer, and aren't looking to solve the same issue, stay off of the thread.