The problem I always had with it is that the little symbols are inscrutable, and mouse-over for a description is inconsistent. Because of this I found the ribbon far less discoverable than text based menus.
If you're referring to Microsoft Office, very few of the options are unlabeled. The only icon-only buttons are on the Home tab, and those are all frequently-used options. Most of them are obvious, and the ones that aren't are easily discoverable with ToolTips.
ToolTips also work very consistently. Hover, and a box appears, in most cases containing a full description and keyboard shortcut(s), and sometimes even helpful graphics.
I think you just don't like it because it's different to what you were used to.
