Both Dvorak and Colemak seem better than QWERTY but it’s difficult to choose between those alternatives. I started using Colemak a few days ago because it’s more modern than Dvorak (whatever that means) but I’m still not sure if it’s the best choice.

One bonus of Colemak is that it has the same location for the keys XCV used for cut, copy, and paste.

I am learning a new layout that does not have xcv in the same place but I fix this by using a layer that keeps the same positions for xcv when holding down cmd/ctrl

To be fair, I think that DVORAK is overkill. If you want a good compromise between ergonomics and ease of use, definitely go for Colemak. Also a way better choice if you are European, and occasionally need some accents or characters that are not on the Dvorak keyboard. If you are crazy about min-maxing every aspect of your typing, IMO it becomes a rabbit hole: programmer's dvorak, colemak DH and other mods etc. etc. Don't forget that the more your setup is away from the standards, the more it can be a pain to go back to the standard, or have other people use your setup

Used Dvorak (with some modifications for Estonian language) for few years around 2005. Then switched back to QWERTY as this is available on almost every computer. Was hard to switch back, but got used to it again in a week. Based on this experience I think alternative layouts are a bit overrated.

I was starting to get wrist pain in my right hand at the end of the day. I believed it was from never learning to type properly, I only used two fingers on my right hand even though I could type relatively fast.

I tried many times to re-train myself to type properly, but with proper technique I was only typing at half of my normal speed and would give up quickly.

In the end I switched to colemak to force myself to re-learn how to type with proper hand technique. It took a year but now I can type faster than I used to be able to with QWERTY and without any pain. It was definitely worth it for me, but there are enough annoyances with everything being QWERTY by default that I wouldn't recommend anyone make the switch without a reason to do so.

I had the same experience switching to Dvorak. It forced me to relearn how to type, and when I was relearning, I made sure to learn properly. The switch, and relearning to type, 95% solved my RSI problems.

Dvorak is much more comfortable to use than qwerty.

The main cost is the fingers needing to re-learn motor memory. Likely with QWERTY your fingers 'knew' where the letters where. When I learned to touch-type Dvorak, my fingers took some time to adjust, and I had a hard time typing on QWERTY.

With a separate column-staggered keyboard like the Corne, I imagine it's easier to retain the row-staggered QWERTY on standard keyboards, & touch-typing whatever on the Corne.

I've tried many (too many) layouts and my recommendation would be Colemak-DH.

If you have a programmable keyboard, feel free to experiment with symbols, letters, etc. Home-row mods are also something that I warmly recommend.

There are other layouts, like BEAKL, MTGAP, Hands Down (Neu, Gold,Vibranium…). The current recommendation for Colemak on split kb is Colemak Mod DH, but i think the optimal layout depends on the ratio of code to prose that you use.

There is a subreddit dedicated to this very discussion, and the more general subbredit ( r/ergoMechanicalKeyboard) migrated to Lemmy https://lemmy.world/c/ergomechkeyboards

https://www.reddit.com/r/KeyboardLayouts/comments/14m5hpy/no...