I've been riding my older steel bike with a compact 50/34 and 12-26 cassette for a few years now, and I like to climb even though I suck mightily at it. My main complaint is that I can't seem to find an 11-25 or similar 8 speed cassette and I frequently spin out with the 50-12 combination.

On my 10 speed carbon bike I'm running a 53/39 crank with an ultegra 12-30 cassette and it seems to be working very well for me. Of course, the bike is also about 7 lbs lighter, which probably skews my perceptions a bit.