QWERTY. i work on multiple environments that can't always be accessed remotely, so that means I'm physically moving to different computers daily. It's better for me to use the most common layout so that there's as much consistency between systems as possible
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QWERTY on a cheap Dell keyboard I've had for 12 years.
I'm sure some of the alternatives are objectively superior, but with all due respect to enthusiasts, I'm simply not passionate about it and have yet to be convinced that the time and pain spent on getting used to a new layout would actually be worth it in the long run.
Dvorak. Have been for years. Way less work to type the same speed as QWERTY.
Yup, plus don't get coworkers "just needing my screen for a quick thing". Win win!
My username approves.
My keyboard lays out flat on my desk. I don't unfold the little legs underneath.
Savage
As nature intended.
Pet theory: most Dvorak users were, in their pre-enlightenment lives, messy freestyle 3-finger typists. If you ever went to the trouble of formally learning to touch-type Qwerty, moving to another layout just seems impossibly foreboding. No way.
You become multilingual. It doesn't transfer the same way you think. I type dvorak at home, qwerty at work, and qwerty on mobile. My brain somehow knows when to switch. The most common slip up I run into is that my brain gets confused with a laptop and sometimes I mix the two.
Pet theory: most Dvorak users were, in their pre-enlightenment lives, messy freestyle 3-finger typists.
Given that Dvorak tries to maximize alternating hands when typing consecutive characters [1], that theory definitely feels plausible given that the "hunt-and-peck" style for typing naturally seems to work with alternating hands. I think the same idea could also be applied to mobile typing as you only have two thumbs — perhaps Dvorak would lend itself well to mobile typing?
References
- "Dvorak keyboard layout". Wikipedia. Accessed: 2024-08-10T23:00Z. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_keyboard_layout#Overview
Letters should be typed by alternating between hands (which makes typing more rhythmic, increases speed, reduces error, and reduces fatigue).
If you ever went to the trouble of formally learning to touch-type Qwerty, moving to another layout just seems impossibly foreboding.
It's not that bad. By my experience, having gone from QWERTY to Dvorak to Colemak to Workman, it takes maybe an hour to memorize the keys, then it's just a matter of practicing by using it. You will progressively get faster and faster as it becomes second nature. To get to full typing speed and for it to feel completely natural, however, it will likely take a month, depending on how often and how much one types.
Something interesting that I noticed, though, is that it seems that the brain is only to be able to know one keyboard layout well at a time. If I learn a new layout, I don't maintain my skill with the previous layout minus the skill lost due to lack of practice. It almost feels entirely zero-sum. As I gain skill in one keyboard layout, I seem to equally lose skill in the previously known keyboard layout. I do try and maintain some level of proficiency with QWERTY, given that it is still the standard and is the most common, but it takes considerably more effort. It seems to be less acquiring a new skill and more rewiring the brain.
Why does workman have a different layout for Linux? That’s a headache for people who dual boot
Dvorak. I switched back in 2005 from qwerty and never looked back. I never looked forward either, so I may try out Colemak at some point in time. Workman looks solid for English, but I am not a native English speaker.
Dvorak exclusively. This thread is the most I've heard of other people using it. To date, I've met 2 people who have HEARD of it, but no one else who uses it
Been trying Colemak-DH but I'll have to use it for at least half a year till I can give it a proper review
Colemak
Dvorak to touch-type but qwerty on my phone's virtual keyboard.
Dvorak for over thirty years; always used swipe typing with QWERTY on mobile devices
Dvorak since Dec 2010. Between semesters, I was just checking it out, not planning to stick with it at all. But, I really liked it, so I spent the rest of the semester break learning Dvorak and never looked back.
I met another dvorak user at work. I made a git commit that was meant to eventually be squashed with the message aoeu
, which apparently gave me away. My coworker then asked me if I typed in Dvorak; not immediately recalling the commit message, I was quite astonished; how tf did you know that? Turns out, he typed in Dvorak too.
Querty with a 55 key ortholinear split keyboard aligned at almost a 90 degree angle.
Most of the complaints I hear about keyboard setups could be solved by either completely remapping the keys or, if you really need to not move your hands around, investing in one of these.
Oh no. I didn't need to know about the Svalboard. I thought I'd got to endgame with the Glove80. 😬
My split ortholinear keyboard has been a game changer for the wrist pain I've been dealing with
Dvorak with some custom bindings for German diacritics and the Euro symbol, e.g. AltGr+a gives me ä.
Furthermore, my layout behaves like QWERTY when I told down Ctrl, so that shortcuts like Ctrl+C are still easy to press.
Switching to Dvorak immediately removed any pain I had started experiencing more and more often typing with QWERTY. In the long run it also improved my typing speed. I can usually achieve between 130 and 140.
Nice there is a great keyboard layout creator for windows.
If you use linux do you mind sharing your custom layout and how you did it?
On Windows it's pretty easy. On Linux I found some shady kernel monkey patch for the Ctrl feature, but I don't remember where.
Unfortunate :/
And the custom Dvorak layout with the umlauts on linux?
I use the Swedish layout.
Fun fact, if you are lazy when setting up a new computer with a Swedish keyboard, you can just pick the Finnish layout instead, they are identical and you won't need to scroll as far down.
As for the physical keyboard I use, I currently use a Ducky One 2 Skyline keybord with the absolutely gorgeous Trailblazer keycap set:
https://www.alohakb.com/en-se/products/alohakb-trailblazer-cherry-profile-keycaps
It is my first custom keycap set I have bought, and damn, it is just fantastic.
ANSI QWERTY.
It's the standard layout in my part of the world, and my ability to walk up to any PC in the land and comfortably type outweigh any advantages other layouts would have.
Colemak-DH using an Atreus from keeboard.io
My username should be a giveaway...
Dvorak, but the one that uses UK punctuation.
It doesn't exist on Windows. Did you know that making custom keyboard layouts on windows is a pain?
Dvorak. The same as others have posted, I started to type for a living and started to feel the numbness in my hands as I read up on RSI. I switched to Dvorak on my phone then eventually to desktop.
I'm willing to take a gander at the Workman layout.
dvorak.used to feel keyboard strain after typing for a long time, dvorak fixed that
I like my keyboards like I like my Captain Bluebear characters. Qwert Zuiopü.
I feel like there is going to be a disproportionate amount of people not using a standard qwerty keyboard that replies to this :)
I use qwerty on a standard 100% and another split 60%. I am trying to switch to ortholinear split Dvorak, but haven't been able to design a keyboard I am comfortable switching to full time. I would also need two of them, one for home, one for work.
Dvorak. I find it much more comfortable and performant than QWERTY.
I’m not a fan of how accented vowels are achieved so I created a custom layout using Ukelele (macOS). That said, I haven’t installed that custom variant on my current setup and am just achieving accented characters the standard way. I should do something about that.
I’m not a fan of how accented vowels are achieved
I personally use a compose key to accomplish accents.
I’m doing that currently, but as a touch typist it really slows me down since most words have an accented character in my language.
Qwertz 🇩🇪
I've tried Dvorak and Workman but switched to Colemak-DH about a year ago just for fun and to try something new (I have a split ortho keyboard with XDA keycaps so the profile is uniform).
Works great, but my typing speed dropped by about 40 WPM from the low 110s to the mid-70s and I haven't had enough time to practice and get back up there. Previous layouts have required at least a few months of practice with Monkeytype or Keybr and I've been too busy.
Bepo
QWERTY. Jealous?
I use Dvorak on a 36 key split ortholinear keyboard
QWERTY.
I tried Dvorak when I started having RSI issues, but found no improvement after a year, so I switched back. Others clearly have different experiences. 🤷♂️