I’ve always heard about this mythical keyboard layout that was the apogee of all keyboards, the glowing golden standard to which all others fail to equal, and the other keyboard, designed to be slow and awkward. What might surprise some people is it’s the other, slower keyboard that has sprouted up on desks and laps all over the world and the Secretariat of keyboards never gets its chance to show its true legs.

The Qwerty keyboard was designed to keep the mechanical arms of typewriters from jamming by positioning common successive strokes on either sides of the machine. In contrast the Dvorak keyboard was designed to make the most common letters and
sequences of letters the easiest to type.

While installing Ubuntu this evening I noticed the Dvorak keyboard as an option. Immediately I thought about the several Dell keyboards I have tucked away in drawers gathering dust. Now I love my new slim Apple keyboard, but I’m going to stow it in the drawer for the next few weeks. Tomorrow I plan on laying out a Dvorak and giving it a try. I would like to find a typing speed test and see how it compares to the Qwerty and how it improves over time.