Hello.
A couple of months ago, I noticed a colleague using an interesting keyboard. I asked him if I could type on it, and when I did, it seemed like I was hitting all of the wrong keys. Turns out he was using a Colemak layout. He told me a bit about it and my curiosity was piqued. A week or so later I had ordered two of the keyboards for home and work, one of which is pictured below in white.
They're not exactly cheap at $99 USD each (plus some heavy taxes thanks to the country I'm working in) when you order two, but since I'm using a keyboard for most of my waking hours, it's a worthwhile investment. I decided that having no keys would be a cool little novelty, and I think my impulsiveness payed off - it encourages me not to look at the keys and provides quality entertainment when co-workers attempt to type on it. It has shortcuts to switch between Qwerty, Dvorak and Colemak, which is awesome. It's also plug and play. I purchased a skin for use at work (pictured above), but didn't really like typing on it, so took it off after a few days. I have the brief, one-sheet A4 manuals lying around in case I forget where a key is (e.g. print screen, F keys, etc.).
When I ordered the keyboards, I planned to go straight into Colemak use at home and work. This has worked quite well, although it was frustrating at work, mainly when typing on IRC; the location of some often used keys are near the Enter key, which led (and unfortunately sometimes still leads to) sending an unfinished sentence. The only time I use a Qwerty layout is on my laptop, mainly because I'm too lazy to install the layout. I am still quite fast with Qwerty, but we'll see how good I am after a few months. I'm quite happy with the keyboard and layout.
I have been typing with Qwerty all my life, with my own form of touch typing (whatever it may be). I am running Windows at home and Linux at work (as well as Windows on my laptop, but that's Qwerty so it doesn't count).
I am using TypeFaster to measure my progress, with the Common Words lesson being my test of choice. For the first few days I was practicing at night since I felt my speed was impeding my work, understandably. After a week or so of using the keyboard and layout combo, I was comfortable enough that I didn't feel I had to practice. I still test myself whenever I remember, and thought I'd post my results for those who are curious about how practical this kind of transition is.
I don't focus on accuracy, I just do what feels right. Some of the more difficult keys for me so far have been g, p, d, h and the symbol keys, since I'm using them often. I try to stick to the proper column of keys for each finger. On this keyboard it's easy to see where each finger should be. For games (the most important part) that might require typing to other players, I've changed the bindings and play with Colemak. For others whose bindings haven't changed much, I just switch to Qwerty. The results I'm posting are not starting from my first day with the board - I had picked it up a few days prior.
05/10/2012:
06/10/2012:
07/10/2012:
08/10/2012:
12/10/2012:
15/10/2012:
