Heh, I can't remember all the details anymore. I was on a Dvorak mailing list and starting to notice some deficiencies in (Norwegian) Dvorak. I don't think anyone told me about Colemak - I just searched around and found it, together with some other layouts. Spent a while shopping around and thinking, and then argueing with Shai about whether everything really was perfect. I ended up accepting all of his arguments and ever since I've been a happy Colemak user.

I began using Colemak officially November 17, 2008 and now never use Qwerty unless I'm playing one of those MMOs.

I learned about Dvorak about a year before learning Colemak, and I tried it when I first heard about it, but it was so difficult. So I figured I would delay until a time I felt that I was ready. In November, I just decided, heck, I'll learn Dvorak my fingers will thank me. Then I got on keybr.com to practice on that first day, and I noticed another option. It was Colemak. It was similar to Qwerty, yet it seemed to have the keys in the right places. After a quick Google search, and about 20 minutes later, I was set. Colemak was for me.

I started out with Colemak in February 2008, but I don't really remember anymore how I found out about it.  I switched from Qwerty four-finger hunt 'n pecking (but at 80+ wpm) to Colemak touch-typing (along the same speed after a year or so).

I had first seen Asetion, Colemak's predecessor, over 5 years ago though.  I didn't switch, but I have used the recommendation to remap Caps Lock to Backspace since then.  It was an additional Colemak selling point for me seeing that it did the same thing, not knowing initially that it was created by the same man. :-)

So getting Colemak included with OS distributions and typing tutors really helps attracting new users.

I started investigating alternative keyboard layout when I realized some people don't actually look at the keys before typing. I was hunting-and-pecking at the time, since like 10 years and couldn't really type a word without reaching for the backspace key. That and the fact that programming was a bit painful using QWERTY. (Thank god Quebec kept QWERTY instead of that monstrosity known as AZERTY. Typing AZERTY should be a criminal offence)
So really for me what started it all was a desire to learn typing anew, though this time "blind". It was clear my old QWERTY habits would have been *impossible* to break, hence switching layouts.

The first thing I tried was Dvorak. After reading about how dvorak thrashes your pinkies, I found out about Colemak, probably either from Googling or Slashdot and decided one day at work to switch cold-turkey. I started out trying each and every key until I found the one I wanted (no printed layout or guides, nada) and eventually reached the stage where typing happened. Here I am now, more than a year later, long having surpassed everything I could even dream of typing-wise.

Anyways, what I love so much about Colemak nowadays is its multilingual features. You can literally type any ABC language using this layout: äåãøßœöó»« etc.

A co-worker told me that QWERTY was only the result of 100 years of inertia, and I was shocked. I started looking about optimized layouts, and first found about Dvorak but also Colemak. It seemed the best option.

It´s been two years and I´ve never looked back.