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Why is Everyone Still Stuck in QWERTY?
theWrkncacnter asks: "I was recently giving some instructions over IRC to a long time QWERTY keyboard user who wanted to switch to the Dvorak layout, mostly because a good majority of the people in channel had made the switch and were all talking it up, myself included, about how our speeds had increased and how its much more comfortable. This made me think, why don't more people use the Dvorak layout? Searching around I found an older topic on the subject, but that didn't answer too many questions, as most people in the comment section seemed to think that Dvorak vs. QWERTY was a hardware issue, when it is really a matter simply changing the layout on your particular OS. I took the time to pry off and remap my powerbook keyboard's keys but I have no problem typing in Dvorak on a physically QWERTY mapped keyboard, and I know many others who don't have a problem doing so either. So given all of this, why don't more people switch? Is it that most people just can't be bothered to make the change, even when its more efficient and more comfortable?" Is it mostly due to the fact that most people learn to type first on QWERTY due to its popularity, and hence don't bother to learn anything else?
Why don't you drive on the other side of the road? There's less traffic going in your direction. You get there the same way. The cops running radar won't be facing in that direction. Duh, it's a standard, stoopid. There are few, if any, benefits of the Dvorak layout. Some anecdotal evidence here and there. But enough to replace every keyboard in every high school and trade school? Nope. Not by a long shot.
Maybe if everyone had the 733+ skillz you do, they could type Dvorak on a qwerty keyboard. But then they'd be so cool that they don't get laid, just like you.
What a moronic fucking question, and posed from the wrong direction. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'. qwerty, if broken, is so insignificantly broken as to not justify its replacement. Next you'll ask why we don't all use AM stereo. IOW, why should the world switch to Dvorak? Including all international users.
Why am I wasting the time posting here, when I could be posting in what could possibly be the first JE to wind up in the HOF?
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
the vast majority of dvorak's work is lofty, overcomplicated solutions to problems that don't really exist. personally, I think he's a moron and a whiner.
creating a new keyboard layout for no other reason than having a new vehicle for fame doesn't do any of us any good. qwerty is successful and the mainstay of layouts for keyboards for the simple reason that it works and is pre-existing.
ziff-davis's poster boy is no visionary. may his crummy keyboard layout die.
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