Let me just start by saying that I love Colemak, and I'm really happy that I switched. I often try a lot of things that are new or unusual, and never share my experiences, which I think is not a very good thing. Personally, I spent hours and hours lurking on the experiences section of this forum before deciding to switch, and revisiting often whenever I felt a strong urge to just give up. All of the experiences that everyone has shared have been so valuable to me, it convinced me to share mine for anyone who might be in the position that I was in.

So, like most others, I typed in QWERTY for basically my entire life (I'm in my mid 20s and started using computers when I was around 4 years old). I never fully adopted home-row typing, and instead always used the first three fingers of my right hand with the first two fingers of my left and moved all over the keyboard in big arcs. Fast forward to last year, where I got hired for a full time position where I'm either writing code, documenting processes, or typing reports. These are longer sessions of more typing with fewer breaks than I've ever had, and after two months, the tips of my fingers in my right hand started tingling at the end of the day every day.

This scared me. I love writing code, and I felt like I was way too young to already start worrying about carpal tunnel. So, I decided to get an ergonomic keyboard, adjust my desk and chair properly, fix my posture, and start taking a break every hour or so to rest my hands, while resolving to learn proper QWERTY typing technique. This took about a month, and for the month following it, it actually helped. Plus, my typing speed increased from 40wpm to 60wpm, and that was nice, although it plateaued there (I used typingweb.com). After that month, though, the tingling in my fingers started to come back, accompanied by pain in my wrists. Over the course of that month, it got to the point where the middle finger on my right hand was starting to regularly go numb.

It was at this point that a co-worker told me about Dvorak. I learned about the supposed history of QWERTY, got swept up in all of the Dvorak lore, and decided to learn it.

So, I really pushed myself to learn Dvorak, used it exclusively after only a couple days, and after about three weeks got my speed up to about 50wpm. It helped the pain and numbness go away a little bit in the first week, but that didn't stay, so I'm left to wonder if that was just because I was typing at 10wpm at the time. Maybe I just didn't stick with it long enough. But ultimately, the back and forth hand alternation just didn't work for me, and I never really liked some of the key placements (mostly the vowels, especially 'I'). To me, that's just a subjective thing. I've since met people who have tried Dvorak and love that about it, saying it feels much better on their hands. Also, always closing browser windows while trying to copy and paste into them was a bit frustrating, but I was willing to deal with it for the benefit.

Then, I discovered Colemak, really thanks to carpalx. I have to say, switching from Dvorak to Colemak after only using Dvorak for a little over a month was AWFUL. My hands were so confused. I would reach for letters in places that they were never at in any of the three layouts. But there would be small moments, like when I typed 'start' or 'thirst' or 'neither', and even during the first week I already could tell that I liked how it felt.

So I've been using Colemak for about four months now, and I'm really glad I switched. I'd say these are the high points, as well as how everything that I was initially concerned about ended up playing out:

- First, and most importantly and amazingly, the pain and numbness in my hands is completely gone. I don't even have to worry so much about my posture anymore, and it doesn't come back when I use a non-ergonomic keyboard, even if I do so for hours on end.
- I type at between 70 and 80 wpm (using typingweb and keybr to evaluate). Last I checked I was at 97%-98% accuracy. This is waaaayyy better than I could ever do with QWERTY. But also, I don't know about everyone else, but I rarely type in a non-stop barrage at a constant 80wpm. I often stop and think about what I'm writing, so the best part is the accuracy. I rarely ever have to backspace, and that keeps from breaking my train of thought. Most things I backspace aren't misspelled, they just aren't what I want to say - it was always that way in every layout I've used. But in QWERTY, I would typo, notice it, backspace, fix it, forget what I wanted to say, type and backspace several things that aren't what I wanted to say, and then get rolling again.
- It doesn't cause any problems in the office at work or with pair programming. It takes 2-3 seconds to switch for someone. I have a macbook, and alternate between running Windows and ArchLinux at work. In arch, it's one line in the terminal to switch to/from Colemak, and it takes 2 seconds to enter with autocomplete (I hit [Windows key]+T, type 'setx', hit [Tab] (autocomplete), hit the up arrow once (terminal history), and hit enter. Done.)
- I use Vim everyday. I didn't remap Vim's keys, just learned them in Colemak. The reverse j/k for up down was the only weirdness, and I was fine after an hour because everything mac has up and down reversed anyway. I'm just as fast as ever.
- I do design in Photoshop. I found out that my knowledge of Adobe hotkeys was never muscle memory, and the switch was instant and easy.
- I still switch back to QWERTY for gaming. I'm a bit clumsy for the first 10-15 minutes in chat, but am just fine after that. I've never had a problem with things like forgetting SC2 hotkeys or anything.
- Everyone who has ever inadvertently sat at one of my keyboards, typed out a bunch of nonsense, and then asked what on earth "colemax" is when I switch the keyboard for them have thought it was really cool. One person even switched to it, and another decided to learn Dvorak.

So that's basically it. If I could say anything to someone who is lurking in these forums, and is reading this because they're considering learning Colemak, it would be to go for it, that it's worth it, and your hands will thank you. It's not a big deal, you have nothing to lose, and you can always go back to QWERTY. Truly, just about anything else you could spend your time learning will be more difficult and take a lot longer to really master.