Well I probably will give Linux another shot at some point. But I hated all the terminal stuff when I tried it a couple of years ago, it just seemed horrendously ugly. And Windows update, I don't think I've run that in a long time. Will I be able to play all my Windows games on Linux? I remember that being another problem.

I don't know about the terminal being "ugly"; maybe you were using an exceptionally ugly one like xterm or something.  It looks neither good nor bad to me, and of course you can customize it.

Dreymar also gives nice advice: I would add elementary as a suggestion (see top vid) for the GUI goodies.  Not much of a gamer (my experience is limited to grabbing steam's L4D2 when it was free on christmas, and not playing it yet) so can't give much advice there.

lol

Sorry, nothing has changed since last time.

Thanks for the essay angelic_sedition. Shorthand is something I can use all the time. Do I install new programs every day? No. This forum and Colemak relates to typing efficiency. Shorthand is relevant. Why is it not discussed here apart from on rare occasion?

The attitude I take towards Colemak users is no different to the attitude I often see them express towards QWERTY users for using an "outdated" layout. If they criticize us poor old, inefficient QWERTY users, expect to be criticized back.

Lalop says he was "unable to get autokey working". So I wonder why, if Linux is so good, does he have trouble getting basic functionality (text replacement) on it?

Linux really was ugly when I used it, a while ago. Maybe that's changed?

I put my Windows 7 laptop to sleep when I'm not using it, and it takes about 30 seconds to load it back up from where I left off.

Because text replacement is relevant to typing efficiency, obviously. Which is what Colemak is about.

Well I install new programs frequently. Colemak is a keyboard layout, and linux is great for keyboard lovers. There are a great number of things that a lot of us do that have to do with the keyboard, and the terminal allows for greater efficiency for many common computer tasks. Even if you want to narrow it just to typing words, then I would ask if you are using a decent text editor like vim and if not why you settle for something more inefficient. Everything I mentioned and more that I didn't mention is relevant. Efficient window management, browsing, file management, etc. is all just as important to me as typing.

I see no statement anywhere that the forum relates to typing efficiency alone. Clearly from this thread it would seem that speed is not the primary concern of most of us. It might be more accurate to say say that ergonomics is a more important factor, so why are we not discussing ergo boards and more ergonomic mappings here?

Autokey works fine. I've been using it for quite a while. I have never had any trouble getting it working and have used it on many different distros and DEs. You can't point to a single person and event as if it represents everyone's experience with everything.

In the past year or so, I have tried out Unity, Cinnamon, Mate, Gnome Shell, Xfce, and KDE. All of them looked great by default except for xfce and kde which I had to take a few minutes to configure. I used Ubuntu for the first time a few years ago (3 or 4) and it certainly wasn't ugly then either. I much prefer the compositing on linux.

30 seconds is a very long time for getting out of sleep. And if you're dualbooting (like me), you actually have to boot any time you change OSs if you don't want to virtualize.

Aren't we all typists here? I see nothing on Colemak's home page that recommends users should change operating system. Shai could amend that if he feels that Linux would be better.

As well as you being unable to get Autokey to work, davkol says "I'm playing with AutoKey and wonder why all these apps haven't been updated for years." He has a point. You'd think a wonderful operating system like Linux would at least have an up-to-date text replacement program for it? And with all the wonderful support for Linux you shouldn't have a problem getting it to work right?

Ah yes. I said "sleep" but I meant "hibernation". I tested it and putting it to sleep and waking it up takes only a few seconds. I dual boot 2x Windows 7, so when I take it out of hibernation it goes through that screen.

Vim is available for Windows, you know that don't you? I never said I had a problem using Vim. Why don't you start another thread about that though?

Er, we are? I gave you a link to someone who was using Plover with an Ergodox keyboard when you asked me about it. Steno is something I'm in the process of learning and it's another thing that I would like to see more interest in. That sort of stuff relating to keyboards tends to be discussed on GH more. But absolutely, we could discuss it more here. Why don't you start a new thread about that and we could all chime in?

Also, more efforts could be made to develop a similar system to Plover, for other languages. Or a hybrid system as we discussed. Rather than yet more layouts that try to improve on the old letter by letter system. 

Shorthand means less keystrokes, which arguably would imply better ergonomics.

That's great to hear! That means you can try my T9-QWERTY system or the shorthand and leave some feedback, on any problems or suggestions you might have.

When I posted my T9-QWERTY system, not one person came forward and said they'd tried it on Linux. Not one person said they'd tried the shorthand either, so I had to assume there was a problem. If there's no problem, then full steam ahead!

Just tested it, it's actually just a few seconds.

Of course it is. I use it on Windows. My point had nothing to do with that.

Yes, I saw it. My point is just that there are many things that could be said to be relevant and not just text expansion/ shorthand, so why push it so much over everything else? As I said, terminal usage among quite a few practices that are only easily achieved on linux contribute to the efficiency of my workflow just as much of. To each his own of course.

Indeed. I've started with the shorthand. Since you brought it up though, Autokey isn't out of date. I've had less problems with it than I have had with phrase express. Autokey does more than text expansion as well; it allows for python scripting.

Not sure how you could have mangled my meaning so badly, but no. By "typist" I was referring to the occupation, someone whose main concern is to input data rather than to compose or edit it. Only for such a person would there be a paramount interest in typing efficiency, over even concerns like "doing a lot with a few keystrokes".

Shai doesn't always put the ideal things on his website. For instance, there is no mention of tarmak or shortcut density (compared to dvorak and even qwerty). But mini-rant aside, I think it's pretty clear that one of his goals was reduced intrusiveness, and, well, change of OS would go against that grain. hehe.

Shorthand has been discussed on the forum.  No one is poo-pooing the  merits of it.  Many here are curious and interested in possible alternative input methods.  Don't expect everyone to jump when you say.  Be a little less impatient.

Pardon.  I did try out PhaseExpress, with your pxp file.

My emphasis was on practical portability: convention over configuration.

The example I gave, was that of trying to share a personalised dictionary across platforms and applications, which currently I find quite tricky.