Well... I think it's about time.  I have started to actually try to learn Colemak--though I am doing it much differently than I did Dvorak.  I'll just use this thread for now because, well, I created it anyway and it's empty, and it does mark my first look at Colemak since I became a Dvorak user.  No need to start a brand new one.

But before that... I thought I would point out one interesting thing about Dvorak.  Recently, I was thinking... well sooner or later I'm gonna want to create an alias to the "ls" command (specifically, "ls -l").  The "la" command is something like what I want... except I don't want hidden files to be shown.  For some reason I remember reading about a similar shortcut, "ll"--short for "ls -l" which is exactly what I want.  Apparently it is a real, common alias--I typed it in openSUSE and it worked.  Saved the trouble of having to edit some text file... heh.  Nice. :)

Anyway... I've been putting a little bit of practice into Colemak here and there and then going back to Dvorak immediately afterwards the last few days.  I never measured the total time per day, but it is short.  In fact, even this is being typed up in Dvorak.  The reason is simple: I want to minimize the chances of introducing new problems into my Dvorak typing, which would (I think) only hamper my progress and cause unnecessary confusion.

Not to mention make it more difficult to actually mentally switch the two at will!  The fewer problems I have typing strings of Colemak in Dvorak (and reverse), the better.  I was considering going cold turkey like I ended up doing from QWERTY to Dvorak and then immediately re-learning Dvorak before it is lost completely, but I figured that since I haven't known Dvorak all my life I would likely lose it and I wasn't going to allow that to happen.  It just doesn't have the advantage QWERTY did when it comes to being firmly ingrained in my memory.

I have gained a few words per minute in Colemak since I originally made this topic (mostly within the last few days).  It's not a whole lot, but it's progress, and I feel like I am typing noticeably faster and with much lower error rates today.  I also seem to be remembering a few basic combos/rolls now.  My speed seems to be at a minimum and average of 15 WPM for the 2-minute test at Hi-Games, though I have got 17 or 18 a couple of times.  Hopefully I can keep the two layouts distinct in my mind even as I approach higher speeds in Colemak... so far it's working quite well though.

All of this is on one computer, one keyboard, one OS, etc... I don't have a separate "Colemak practice" machine or special non-standard keyboard to help ease the learning and/or separation of the two layouts in my mind.  Certain aspects of QWERTY seem to be helping my learning of Colemak even this long after ditching it... such as Colemak's similar QW, ZXCVB, ',./ keys.  The only occasional problem keys when going back to Dvorak after an extended period of time with Colemak are the period (.), comma, slash, question mark and W.

Edit: On the 1-minute typing test at Hi-Games, my average is around 18-20 WPM.  When I first started practicing Colemak a few days ago, I was so slow that a minute was not enough time to do much, anything really, let alone practice, so I mostly settled on 2 minutes and even the 5-minute test a few times.  Now, it seems that I could probably move back up to the 1-minute test because my current speed now seems adequate.  So, there is some definite progress being made.

It's been a view months, how are you doing? How do you like the layouts so far? Have you stuck to Dvorak / switched to Colemak? Why? Why Not?