I can't expound on this enough: Dvorak, Dvorak, Dvorak.
Just try it. I know it was never designed to solve RSI, but it really does work wonders. I had RSI in my mid-teens (18 hours a day on the PC since I was 8 years old), and I switched to Dvorak because I thought I'd type faster with it, and because I thought it'd be cool to type different from everyone else. Silly me. But glad I did, because I have never suffered from wrist problems ever again, 10 years down the line.
Don't just take it from me. There are thousands of people out there with a similar experience. The layout of a Dvorak keyboard presents much less strain for your tendons and muscles, and is far more relaxed and natural. Your body will thank you. It is worth the hassle, it is worth the inconvenience, and it is worth the the time it'll take to re-learn to touch type.
I've had wrist problems with the Dvorak layout, in fact I didn't get any until well after switching. The real benefit is probably that relearning how to type will change your posture or other behavior while you type, relieving you of the habits you got that caused your wrist problems.
I managed to solve my wrist problems by getting a piano.
I completely concur. I've been typing (almost) exclusively on Dvorak for the last 12 years, through university and a career as a professional programmer. It's hard to hear my colleagues complaining of wrist pain on a regular basis. I've tried to get some of them to switch but it's really not easy when your job relies on being able to type. You really do need to immerse yourself on it - trying to learn Dvorak while typing all day on Qwerty isn't going to work.
I'd actually recommend people to make the switch if you ever happen to take a two week vacation where you're still on the computer. Your hands will thank you.
It's even worth the continual comments from my coworkers - "What the fuck is wrong with your keyboard?". Actually, that's a lie, the 16-year-old inside me still loves those comments. :)
Agreed. I'm a full time dvorak typist after years of having used qwerty. I re-learned vim's shortcuts for dvorak. The transition took approximately one month. My wrist used to ache after 10+ hours a day typing querty. The fire finally died after I switched and became comfortable with dvorak.
My first impression when revisiting qwerty is a revulsion at the placement of the "t". What a horrible location for such an oft used key. However, most qwerty users will have a similar response when typing "ls -l" on dvorak. Actually, a lot of unix commands were clearly written with qwerty in mind, their letters centering on qwerty's home row. The unix monikers get easier with repetition for dvorak typists, but dvorak's true power comes in writing English, which in my case is most of my typing. Vim works well with either layout, luckily. Most of the programming languages I use - SQL, golang, python, and c# - seem about the same in either layout.
Once you become fluent with dvorak it "rolls" off your fingers. You'll know what I mean once you're there. "The", "another", "masticate", "friend", and most other words with vowels and common consonants spend most of their typed lives on the home row. Both hands share evenly in typing. The common punctuation and quotes are right where you need them.
If you use RDP for most of your remote work the transition is surprisingly easy. Switching between layouts is simple in Windows and Unix. Hell, even my copy of Amiga 3.1 supports dvorak out of the box.
Some here seem to switch their keycaps to a dvorak arrangement. I did this in the past with my Model M but eventually set it back to querty. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I need to look at the keyboard now to type qwerty, thus having the keycaps set to querty serves as a convenient reminder. When typing dvorak I never look down.
I experienced the opposite... I had some mild RSI in the past and tried switching to Dvorak to relieve it. Almost immediately my pain increased greatly. I powered through for a month before switching back to Qwerty. I'm sure it helps lots of people but for me it was even more painful and almost impossible to rewire decades of muscle memory.
Just try it. I know it was never designed to solve RSI, but it really does work wonders. I had RSI in my mid-teens (18 hours a day on the PC since I was 8 years old), and I switched to Dvorak because I thought I'd type faster with it, and because I thought it'd be cool to type different from everyone else. Silly me. But glad I did, because I have never suffered from wrist problems ever again, 10 years down the line.
Don't just take it from me. There are thousands of people out there with a similar experience. The layout of a Dvorak keyboard presents much less strain for your tendons and muscles, and is far more relaxed and natural. Your body will thank you. It is worth the hassle, it is worth the inconvenience, and it is worth the the time it'll take to re-learn to touch type.