I find the new way to become frustrating to use. It takes an extra step just to get it to accept textures, the "copy to all faces’ function is hidden now - and when you do find it it’s confusing, and I usually have to select a face 3 times to get it into texture mode. What is the advantage to this new style? (It probably doesn’t matter, because apparently 2.5 will have a complete window setup change, I think?)
I could not find any guidance on using the new system… does it mean you can only use Blender Materials now?
UV face select has been merged into edit mode, all the UV functions are still there, UVmap and you’ll enable the texture options. Also click Ctrl C to copy stuff over all faces.
I’m mainly just wondering why the change? is there any new cool things we can do with it? just curious. 
oh my yes. working with UVs is so much more like working with verts, it’s so much easier. For face select, just enable it in 3D view and in UV/Image Ed. I’ve reworked the wiki through that step