I'm on a POK3R so I'll probably be able to do something like this too. The question is - if we all know that the 'right' way to do it is totally wrong (or requires a non-standard keyboard, which isn't even portrayed on the image anyway) - why is it the way it is?

The angle of keyboard columns is retarded. It was done so that the key levers wouldn't hit each other on old keyboards... and even they they could have been made inline. Maybe consider a grid keyboard such at the typematrix or the preionic? (olkb.com)

OK, from watching some of your videos I've learned two things:
1) These keys are used rather rarely
and
2) Whenever you use these keys, your index finger follows, moving away from the home row.

This means it's not really a problem, but during the learning stage I feel a lot less comfortable being dynamic and moving my fingers so much. I'll keep practicing...

You haven't missed anything. It is madness.

As others have mentioned, check out the angle mod. Before I converted to using the angle mod, I used to use the "incorrect" technique of C with index finger, X with middle, etc.

The one drawback of the ANSI keyboard is that it's not great for the Angle Mod! 

Yeah, you either need to move all the other keys one space to the right, or relocate Z to the old B position. 

A further option has been suggested: making left shift become your new Z, so that you can keep the default home position. In this configuration you would need to define alternative shift keys, some have suggested CapsLock and apostrophe in this case.

OH NOES!!!1!!!one!!!!eleven!!!!¡!¡!

The ulnar deviation! The pain, the... *sobs*

No, this is very very far from the "correct" way of typing. It's a horribly outdated image based on horribly outdated thinking.

Here's an ANSI Wide-Angle(Z)-modded layout with a DH-mod (SteveP99's DvbgHm mod, to be precise). The Wide part isn't necessary but nice. But the Angle part fixes your problem. The better option is to use an ISO keyboard so you won't have to move the Z key, but many typists aren't that fortunate hardwarewise. For more options and explanations, see my sig topics.

Straight wrists is such a boon to typing comfort.

Here's how I roll these days:

   
    The Colemak-CurlAngleWide ('Curl-DbgHk_AWide-35') ergo mod for PC105/ISO keyboards.

The finger colorings are Feng Shui based, taken from which elements belong to which fingers! ;-)

The revenge of ISO! Yeah, I know, sorry about that...

It's an odd story: IBM made the ISO keyboard because they saw the need for an extra key. But US users didn't want it (probably due to the same social inertia that kept QWERTY on top?) so now we have both. ISO is used by people who really need that extra key, and now it turns out there are other benefits to it as well... :-)

The gripe of the ANSI crowd is that the extra key makes the LShift stretch too long. But on an ISO keyboard it's no longer than the RShift stretch – and on an AngleWide-modded keyboard BOTH Shift key stretches are short and sweet!

Look into the A-Wing and Angle(Z) mods for ANSI, if you will. Depending on your preferences, they may improve your life. DH-mod is also recommended, of course. ;-)

Up to you. I've been part of the development of most mods, so I've done them one at a time and I think they're not that hard to do (especially Wide is easy). But if you're motivated for it I'd say go for it at once! There are Tarmak steps leading to the DH-mod, for instance. That won't give you Wide while learning, but you can easily stack on that right after. Or edit the files to get Wide.

From the support point of view, I'll be around to support solutions for the mods I use. But if you're going to depend on computers where you have to use built-in solutions it's a bit worse (unless you're up to building a QUICKIE Arduino device!). Then again, even vanilla Colemak isn't currently supported by Windows.

I'd say about 80% of the typing I do with my personal keyboard and it should be able to 'remember' all the tweaks in firmware.

I just want to make sure I do it right and avoid ad many bad habits as possible. I've been typing QWERTY for 20+ years without any technique (but still fast around 100wpm), so my goal is to reset and do it right this time. I'm almost sure that it won't harm my QWERTY almost at all because of my lack-of-technique.

Now I need to decide between ANSI Angle + Wide or moveZ + Wide and whether I really want to use DH mod or not... So many decisions, I hate this. :|

-EDIT: Thinking more about it - the Z-movement is out of the question because then I have to shift the bottom row one key left and that means all Windows shortcuts are slightly screwed up. So my only option in the regard of angle is to move home+top row one key to the right. I'll think about the other options and update soon..

-EDIT2: Mod DH moves the V away, breaking another very important Windows shortcut so I guess that's it. I just need to do Wide + Angle. How do you guys make these awesome ASCII/image diagrams of keyboard layouts? I want to make one before I start figuring out how to program the POK3R...

-EDIT3: Damn, I just realized that any mod that includes shifting home+top rows to the right also mean I have to shift the numbers row and... for some reason that annoys me a little. :/

Okay, if you do Steve's Mod-DH it does indeed move the V away (or rather, keeps it in place while moving XC away from it). I didn't like that either, so check out my DbgHk mod which is well suited for normal-staggered boards and less dramatic than the DvbgHm mod. (Again, see my sig topics – or see the updated image further up in this topic.)

The idea behind the Angle mod is that you don't actually shift the bottom row in terms of fingering, but shift your wrist so it's straight instead of contorted. So in "reality", the XCV keys won't be moving although they're moved physically to accommodate the better angle. Yes, having to move the Z is a bit of a downer – but that's only the Undo key which is a separate functionality from the Cut/Copy/Paste block – which is preserved in my DH-mod, in effect.

The A-Frame/"A-Wing" mod keeps all the shortcut keys in place, at the cost of a key column between A/Q and Caps/Tab. This mod moves a lot of keys physically, but again, not conceptually. It lets you do the DH-mod too.

If you want to make an ascii layout design, press the "quote" button on a post that has one you like and copy out the [ code ] part with the layout. Then you can paste that into a post of your own and edit it.

My pretty images I've made as SVG in Inkscape, sweating blood in the process. I like the result, but it's been wayyy too much work. :-)

Learning the Angle mod was really easy, it only took me a couple of days to feel comfortable with it. The DH mod was a bit more of a challenge, but quite easy nevertheless.

I went through a similar experience but from the other side. ISO keyboards are standard here, but for a long time I used to hate that extra key to the left of Z, and would look enviously at ANSI keyboards. It took the Angle Mod to make me change my mind.

Hmm, if I were in your position and had to use ANSI...

Move top and middle rows rightward? I like having the left Alt accessible with my left thumb. For me the relative positions of the bottom row modifier keys would be too adversely affected.

Moving Z is the better option I think. Agree its a bit annoying because of the Ctrl-Z shortcut, but it's still just about acceptable, and you could always define a separate Undo hotkey to avoid reaching for the difficult Z. I think that's what I'd do.

There is another option: Use the standard Colemak layout, but use the "wrong" fingers, i.e. C with index finger, X with middle, Z with ring. Depending on you current technique, this might be the path of least resistance?

I would guess the UK one is the most similar, the main differences are  # @ " \ £.  However since you will be typing Colemak why don't you get one with blank keycaps?  Then you wouldn't have the suffer the indignity of looking at Qwerty :)

It would be nice it were possible to get keyboards with ISO left-half but ANSI right-half.   I also don't like the ISO enter.  The only board I have seen to do this is the proposed Ultimate Hacking Keyboard.

That said I rarely need the Enter key any more, since Extend + space does the job very nicely.