Dominic and Tobar make good points in this thread.

I'm certainly not surprised. There was never any part of me that thought they would just take the existing EU books, comics, and games and just make a movie out of them, or even try to fit the story into the existing EU continuity. A new story will be far more interesting than a story I already know anyway.

Like most people here, I'm pleased by the decision. I feel like the current continuity was getting bogged down with all the retcons and bad stories and whatnot. I think a clean slate was in order to give the movie (and whatever comes next in the EU) some breathing room. While I'm sad that certain aspects I liked about the Post-ROTJ EU are gone, I'm really happy that it's wiped out a lot of stuff I didn't enjoy (I'm looking at you, Karen Traviss), and I'm really excited to see what kind of new stories come out of this.

I think with us especially, it's easy, because most of us have a personal canon already, and like it was said, that's what matters anyway, but it is funny to see prequel apologists, who don't have any concept of a personal canon flailing around like their world is coming apart.