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What has always stopped me from using one of these is that I am working at lots of different boxes at work, and there is no way I could get a new layout installed at them all, which I guess would make the switching back and forth very awkward.
So... What is your experience? A hassle well worth it?
* When you need to use a QWERTY keyboard, how easy is it for you to make the mental switch back and forth?
* Have you found that becoming accustomed to your new layout has had a negative impact on your typing speed in QWERTY?
If anyone wants to learn a new layout, and you're on Linux, I highly recommend KTouch (works fine on Gnome too). I learned Colemak with it in about two weeks, it's perfect. Still using Qwerty till I master vim, though. I found the latter is more of a productivity enhancer than the former, and it's difficult to do both simultaneously.
What does Colemak help you do faster than Qwerty or Dvorak?
From the site:
> Ergonomic and comfortable – Your fingers on QWERTY move 2.2x more than on Colemak. QWERTY has 16x more same hand row jumping than Colemak. There are 35x more words you can type using only the home row on Colemak.
> Easy to learn – Allows easy transition from QWERTY. Only 2 keys move between hands. Many common shortcuts (including Ctrl+Z/X/C/V) remain the same. Typing lessons available.
> Fast – Most of the typing is done on the strongest and fastest fingers. Low same-finger ratio.
> Multilingual – Allows to type in over 40 languages and to type various symbols, e.g. "pâté", "mañana", €, em-dash, non-breaking space.
> Free – Free software released under the public domain. You don't have to buy a new keyboard, just install a program.