Does anyone else use the Dvorak layout?

[Michael Hill]

I just switched a few days ago.

[Greg Marra]

The problem with switching is I would still have to use QWERTY whenever I am at someone else's computer or a public computer or something like that.

[Pat Fairbank]

I switched for a few weeks once, and got fairly proficient with Dvorak, but I had problems since I still needed to use QWERTY a lot on computers other than my own. Because of that, and because I didn't think that the Dvorak layout significantly improved my speed or accuracy, I switched back to QWERTY.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I used Dvorak on my desktop for a few months now. I was good at it, until I got my laptop. I've thought about switching my laptop to dvorak.
Like Pat said, the biggest problem is that no one uses it. Every other computer you will come across has a Qwerty keyboard. It can also be a pain for shortcut keys (ctrl+c, ctrl+v). Many people are used to hitting shortcut keys very quickly, and moving them will mess you up.
One of the first things I noticed after using a dvorak keyboard is that you do much less reaching and stretching for keys. It's much easier on the hands. I highly recommend dvorak if you do a lot of typing, especially if you're at the computer all day.
Also, it does wonders for security. If someone gets physical access to your machine, chances are they don't know dvorak. They won't be able to do anything because it will take them half an hour to type something as long as thins post.

[Allison K]

I use Dvorak on my laptop sometimes. I have it hot-keyed so it's easy to switch back and forth between it and QWERTY.

[Mike]

Ehh... I started learning it. My main problem is that I don't have three or four days to start learning another layout...

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Mike

Ehh... I started learning it. My main problem is that I don't have three or four days to start learning another layout...

You'll learn it fairly quickly. It's a much simpler layout than qwerty. And given the amount of typing that you do, you'd pick it up quickly.

[sanddrag]

I have just started being able to type on QWERTY without looking at the keys. And I'm still not really excelling at it. So, there's no way I could switch.

[ForgottenSalad]

It seems like an interesting layout, but for what it's worth, I have a qwerty keypad on my phone which I use a lot, so having to juggle using two keyboard layouts would be enough of a hassle. I'm very fast with qwerty so I never saw any reason to switch anyway.

[KenWittlief]

There was a guy who worked at my company a few years back who apparently thought only an idiot would still use QWERTY keyboards. He was the companies IT guy, and he changed just about every computer in the company to boot into Dvorak mode.

He's been gone for a couple years now (fired) - but every once in a while we still have computers that get rebooted, and then they come up in Dvorak mode.

Since they are all on the network you cannot log in unless you know the other keyboard layout, or you remember the secret keystroke sequence to switch it back at the login screen.

I lost about 2 hours of lab time because of this once - had to wait for our new IT guy to get back from an off site call.

If I ever meet the dork who did that to all our computers I WILL be punching him right in the mouth!

[114Klutz]

I tried it once - but didn't think it was worth learning. It's somewhat similar to the metric system - an obviously superior way of doing things, but not superior enough to counter current momentum.

[KyleGilbert45]

By Dvorak layout do you mean the keyboard layout? I've never heard of it but google does wonders.

Dvorak Layout

[Michael Hill]

yes