I ran my first campaign using Alpha 1.1 tonight and my players are thrilled with the changes!
I wasn't sure about the new way of gaining Skills, but after a game sesssion, we all realized that it didn't changed a lot of things mechanically speaking (trained Skills goes up by 1 point every level). But to think about Skills as "either you have or you don't" had quite a impression on my players. They love it! And the trimmed-down Skill selection is also a welcomed change: For, why did we had to have Diplomacy AND Gather Information… Isn't it the same Skill (Diplomacy), albeit used in a different context?
There's one thing though: I think something should be do to make Skill like Craft and Profession more appealing… Maybe narrowing them down to a few main concepts (like the Knowledge Skills)?