ok, never mind.  I parsed the Ktouch page again and realized

"Download and untar/gunzip the file "

meant

"Download and untar/gunzip the Ktouch lessons file "

it may look obvious but it's not when you have just spent a day trying to get fink, KDE, and Ktouch working.

Ktouch works beautifully and I just practiced the first 4 levels !   the home row is great !  love it so far.

I wish the Mac page emphasized these 3 steps more prominantly...

    Download the file to the /Library/Keyboard Layouts/ or ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts/ directory.
    Log out of OS X and log back in.
    Open System Preferences, click on the International icon, and in the Input Menu tab enable the layout.

and separated out the stuff about warnings and backspace remapping issues as extra stuff not required to at least get a feel of the layout. 

I might not have wasted a couple of weeks on Dvorak and tackled fink-KDE earlier. 

If the choice is between having a Beta-version kernel extension and not having the backspace mapped to my Caps Lock key, I'll take not having the backspace key remapped.   yuck!

I can wait for something less invasive.

I appreciate that but I don't plan on making mistakes.   I came across the following and it made a huge amount of sense from my martial arts and piano playing experience.  I knew immediately what he was talking about.  Going slow enough so that you can hit the correct key on time (maintaining a rhythm) without error will allow you to learn much faster and consistently than going so fast that you have to make heavy use of the backspace key.  Hitting a lot of wrong notes on a piano during practice is a sure fire way to become a lousy piano player.  When it comes to practicing, famous piano speed virtuosos where/are adamant about playing very slowly and without error (note & timing). Why should it be any different for a touch typists ?  Pianists realize that the problem is not how slowly one learns but in reality we learn too fast. Make mistake once and you have to spend a lot of extra practice time unlearning that mistake.  I figured out that Ktouch will easily let me adapt this idea to learn so that's the what I am going to do.

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TypeRIGHTing - The Guinness Book of World Records winner has a unique approach to typing. Instead of counting errors, you learn to eliminate errors. When you pronounce it right and then type it right letter-by-letter you become extremely proficient at any language (including its spoken and written forms) virtually in no time. Most people learn to type (and most other skills) with TypeWRONGing methods. Instead of learning how to do things right the first time, they learn to backspace and correct what they did wrong. Instead of eliminating errors -- they count errors and correct them and go on as if there were no errors. TypeRIGHTing™ teaches you to do it right the first time. Instead of counting errors, you learn to eliminate errors. But, you don't just learn it mentally. TypeRIGHTing™ doesn't accept, “Oh, I knew that but I just didn't do that...”
TypeRIGHTing™ trains your muscles and nerves, along with your brain, to do it right the first time. One mistake and you have to start over. Just like a video game, you have to do it perfectly or you're dead. Whether your goal is to type better, type faster, type more accurately, or to do anything else more perfectly, you will be more successful using the TypeRIGHTing™ method than any TypeWRONGing method.

If anyone would like to really test their typing speed I have a trivia channel designed to be easy for answers. It is basically see and type for the quick minded. Your personal stats for wpm and answer time are kept as long as you answer one question every few weeks. I have seen many claim high wpm but as the proven world record is 212 wpm I am skeptical. Due to the no spam rule here I won't post channel details but my email is chriscol@live.com.au and I will reply with easy access to the channel if anyone would like to test themselves. It's good fun too. I am aware of various cheats so I will only leave actual stats. I'd be happy to post the results here and in various other locations. I have a few channels and groups. If you want a real test let me know.

Hmmm. Why is Television so good in Holland? Because they have so many channels.