I used to use the simple tab back in 6 but started dabbling with the advanced in 7 and fully over to the advanced in 8. Bagginsbill's posts are what got me comfortable with the material room. I seem to like node based material systems over any other. As much as I used to like Carrara I could never quite click with it's material system. At least not enough to do anything beyond rudimentary or very guided by tutorials. I wasn't even aware that the simple tab was gone. I'm assuming it's still in 11? Haven't looked.