The changes really affect my eyes, have you changed the fonts as well seem to be getting glare effects especially on latest posts... Also preferred the poster being more obvious..
The lack of clutter is good though.. and at least you haven't changed the people
I like the changes. Congrats to all involved. So far we don't seem to be getting blank questions. The only minor change I'd like if it's easy is to put teh poster's name in a different colour/bold in the Latest Posts box.
In response to someone's point earlier, I use IE and the Search box is fine for me