I'm surprised nobody mentioned Colemak. The Colemak keyboard layout is easier to learn and potentially faster than Dvorak (http://colemak.com/).
It is easier to learn because it changes many fewer keys, especially the less frequent ones which are harder to learn because you rarely use them. I found I could never remember where z and v were on Dvorak. Also, many hotkeys stay in place (ctrl+c, ctrl+v, etc).
I learned Colemak (from 0 to 70wpm, now like 90) in 10 days (I had learned and switched back from Dvorak before, though, so I was used to learning new keyboards).
It is potentially faster since it was designed after modern computers were invented and depends more on "finger rolls" to type common substrings quickly. With Dvorak, I often used the same finger to type adjacent letters. I also used my pinky a lot. That was painful. Finally, Colemak keeps punctuation in the same sane place, so it's better for programmers.
Colemak is the 3rd most popular layout. I use it and find it available or trivial to install on all modern OSs. I can easily use other people's computers by either switching the keyboard layout, or just by glancing down which causes my mind to switch to qwerty mode.
Vote up for people trying Colemak. I'm all for people exploring with their typing layouts and seeing what works better, even if I haven't tried it myself.
Comments
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Colemak. The Colemak keyboard layout is easier to learn and potentially faster than Dvorak (http://colemak.com/).
It is easier to learn because it changes many fewer keys, especially the less frequent ones which are harder to learn because you rarely use them. I found I could never remember where z and v were on Dvorak. Also, many hotkeys stay in place (ctrl+c, ctrl+v, etc).
I learned Colemak (from 0 to 70wpm, now like 90) in 10 days (I had learned and switched back from Dvorak before, though, so I was used to learning new keyboards).
It is potentially faster since it was designed after modern computers were invented and depends more on "finger rolls" to type common substrings quickly. With Dvorak, I often used the same finger to type adjacent letters. I also used my pinky a lot. That was painful. Finally, Colemak keeps punctuation in the same sane place, so it's better for programmers.
Colemak is the 3rd most popular layout. I use it and find it available or trivial to install on all modern OSs. I can easily use other people's computers by either switching the keyboard layout, or just by glancing down which causes my mind to switch to qwerty mode.
Vote up for people trying Colemak. I'm all for people exploring with their typing layouts and seeing what works better, even if I haven't tried it myself.