Why is Everyone Still Stuck in QWERTY?

Posted by Cliff on Monday May 5, 2003 @10:45AM from the matters-of-inertia-and-reinforced-behavior dept.

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?

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Re:A question for those who have switched... by sidesh0w · 2003-05-05 11:52 · Score: 4, Informative

YMMV, but I've found your speculations about switching between layouts to be true. I've been using Dvorak for about 5 years at home and I use QWERTY basically everywhere else, and I have managed to remain proficient on both. But if I try to type in Dvorak in other contexts (eg - at school, I switch the layout in software, but leave the keys the same), it takes me a lot longer to adjust -- even though I am not looking at the keys.
And no, I'm not saying this because I'm some some raving Dvorak promoter -- as people have pointed out, it isn't that much faster, and there is always the inconvenience for other people who want to use my computer (It's very simple to remap the keys back & forth with an international layout tool, but some people still can't get over the fact that all the keycaps have been swapped around). Dvorak just has that same geek fun factor that Linux does -- I like using something different from "everyone else" -- because I can -- even if it's only marginally better.