However, the more I look at it, the more I actually think it can work. You don't decide your class all at the beginning anymore, you determine it as you play. And it's still possible to determine what direction you want your character to go in, as well. If you want an Orsimer mage, you can make one. It will be harder, which is why I still support being allowed to "tag" certain skills for a minor boost at the start, but if you want to keep Fallout 3 away from Elder Scrolls, they could have at least kept the specializations. You choose your race, you choose your specialization based on where you feel like going with the character, and get set loose. No major skills, no "restrictions," just a subtle encouragement from yourself to play a certain way (and Skyrim also does exactly this with the racial skill bonuses). The game encourages you, and you encourage yourself, but if you wish to defy or branch away, you won't be punished as severely for it.
What was REALLY needed is encouragement to specialize, something I feel no Elder Scrolls game I've played so far has managed to do. This was mostly due to the old leveling system being rather poorly thought out, thus encouraging "minors as majors" style gameplay or other inane tricks to exploit the leveling system for the maximum gains. That's all gone now, although I don't think attributes were a necessary casualty here (but that's beside the point). Skyrim is taking a step in the right direction by allowing you the option of whether or not you wish to invest in perk trees, and for those you do, you can specialize within the specialization. The idea is to make the game easier for you if you stick to what you decided to do, formulated your class, to say. That's the idea behind a 'got no class' system, you start out with a completely blank slate, and as you play, you build and tweak to your specifications as you go. To put it another way: you are not filling out your character sheet before you start really playing, you are filling it out as you go along. Start with a vision, and then work to achieve it, instead of putting together what you think will work and hope it turns out okay.
Characters will define themselves naturally. You start with a vision (how you want to play the game), rough it out during char-gen (select your race), and get started. Initial gameplay will determine which skills you favor over the rest. Your choice of race offers a gentle nudge in a specific direction, but you are free to ignore it if you want. As you play, eventually your character will construct himself based on how YOU chose to play with him. Your class is determined by your play style now, not by a character sheet. If you switch things up a bit (say, move from a Knight to a Barbarian), you start with the rough picture, and make it clearer and clearer as you go. You don't pre-select your skills anymore, they select themselves in accordance to what you are trying to do. And then you use your perk selections to reinforce that vision of your character. Play your character as you want, and all the blanks will be filled in as you go.
That's it, apply a little gray matter at the start, and just play as you believe your character would live. Within five levels, you will know where to focus. There is plenty of roleplaying potential in a 'got no class' leveling scheme (though that name is a bit inaccurate, actually).
Classes are not lost, they just manifest later on now. As for major/minor skills... you can figure that out on your own. All 'got no class' means is you don't determine your class right off the bat. You create your own, Skyrim has simply dropped the baggage. Specialization is determined by how you really play, not how you think you will play.
You are what you play, after all.
That's the new system. It's a total overhaul, and the roleplaying potential is still there, it's just not in the same place as before. And I, for one, am quite interested to see how it turns out.
(But this does not mean I think removing attributes was a good idea)