Hey all, Yeah I decided to try Colemak after a few discussions on Linux forums concerning keyboard layouts. I was very sceptical about why 'alternative' layouts work at all (Surely any keyboard layout works just as good as long as your fingers know how?) But I'm fast proving myself wrong!

I went totally cold-turkey, and spent the first few days with the picture of the layout on my computer screen showing. I didn't pop my hardware keys out and switch them, I figured it'd only make it harder (Weird home key bumps, giving me a way to cheat). I spent a full day doing every lesson for colemak on GNU Typist, which taught my fingers the positions, then after that I let myself loose on the world of IM chatting and forum-trawling.

IM'ing is a sure-fire way of teaching yourself to type speedily, I hated typing at 2 words an hour while my friends sit there wondering where I am!

I'm now at about 40wpm, which is about half my QWERTY speed, so that should hopefully improve! Already I'm noticing a difference, my fingers barely move at all :D

Right now I don't find myself in any situations of using other PC's, but if I do PKL should be fine (Have it on a USB stick), and my house runs on Linux so that's obviously no bother. I don't use anything that heavily depends on keyboard layouts (I've seen people posting here about Vim... yeowch...) so really Colemak hasn't forced me down any painful logistical problems, except the one of typing too slow, which is something I'm happy to work on.