Originally posted by Agent Z
lsure i guess there would be massive implementation costs
Firstly, you don't need a special keyboard to type in Dvorak. I've been typing on Dvorak for over a year now and I have never even seen a Dvorak keyboard - I've always typed on qwerty ones.
Windows, Linux and (probably) MacOS support keymapping - what this does is change your keyboard layout through software. So you can type merrily in Dvorak.
The reason I learnt Dvorak is because my wrists became sore whenever I typed for more than 20 minutes about a year ago.
The best process (not fastest but _best_
is to switch to a Dvorak keymap and start typing. Don't let yourself switch back to qwerty for at least half an hour. Then go on IRC or another chat program and attempt to chat with Dvorak.
When I first started it took me about a minute to get a sentence out, and after a week or two I hardly had to remember where the keys were. After a month or two it was like I was using qwerty again - no need to look at the keyboard, no thinknig about where the letters are.
To change to Dvorak in Windows XP, go to the Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options. Click the Languages tab, Details button, then Add a keyboard layout as "United States-Dvorak." Have fun and easy wrists.