"Just" learning Dvorak isn't necessarily going to help people. For me, the angles I need to keep my wrists at to type on a traditional keyboard are a showstopper, no matter what layout I'm using. I've previously taught myself Dvorak. And Colemak. Both are, indeed, clearly better than QWERTY. They're not better enough to justify continuing to use a physical layout designed around 130 year old mechanical constraints.
Please note that I'm not saying people shouldn't ditch QWERTY. They should. But that alone isn't enough to just declare the battle won and go home.
(While the keyboard.io prototypes are labeled in QWERTY, the firmware speaks Dvorak and Colemak as well. As of last weekend, it also speaks Workman and a variant of the Maltron layout.)
I'm certainly not saying ergo keyboards aren't useful. It's just that dedicating dozens of prototypes that will always float hands up and to the right (to get at the vowels) seems a fools errand. Ergos are great! I just think, in the same way a cyclist can buy a $4000 bike to save 10 lbs, when a moderate diet would achieve the same weight reduction, that it seems a bit misplaced resources.
I'm a dvorak user and I agree with others that while it is useful, it's not sufficient alone for a good typing experience. Typing x, z, f is still more awkward than it needs to be, enter/backspace etc is difficult, and ctrl is in a really awful position on standard keyboards. (I'm sure every emacs user will agree.)
The difference is more like using an off-road bicycle to travel on flat roads. It's just the wrong tool for the job. The standard keyboard layout was designed how it is for a specific purpose: to allow physical parts to move on old typewriters. The placement of keys serves little purpose to the typist.
In our collective madness though, we have adapted ourselves to typewriter layouts, rather than adapting the layout to fit our hands when the requirement for moving physical parts disappeared.
The higher price of ergo keyboards is mainly a consequence of a much smaller market. Standard keyboards are only so cheap because they're mass produced, and have had countless iterations to simplify the production process over the years.
I'm in desperate need of a better ergo keyboard and I find projects like this one fascinating. I tried designing one myself a while back, but I don't have the skills to make it happen.
Dvorak is nearly pointless. I've been typing in it daily for over a decade, and it has near zero benefit over simply buying a better keyboard and using proper form.
I disagree on dvorak, except in the sense that even dvorak doesn't remap the most awkward keys: backspace and control. If you put backspace on caps lock and control on alt gr (then you can hit it with your right thumb), you are %90 there.
On a Scandinavian keyboard I also put esc on the extra key right of the left shift. My current laptop has a US keyboard but I'll be a smarter shopper next time.
