---
layout:    post
title:     "Dvorak and me"
date:      2013-03-13 21:20:13
tags:      [linux]
permalink: /blog/2013/3/13/dvorak-and-me
published: true
author:
    name: Gergely Polonkai
    email: gergely@polonkai.eu
---

A few months ago I have decided to switch to the Dvorak layout. After using
QWERTY (well, QWERTZ, to be precise) for almost 17 years, it was a hard
decision, but now I think it worthed the try. I started with the UK (Dvorak
with UK punctuation) layout, and in about four weeks, I’ve almost reached my
original typing speed. Today I have modified the Hungarian xkb definitions file
to add the Hungarian accended letters like ű to the layout, so I don’t have to
use dead keys anymore (which apparently turned out to be a problem, as the
Linux version of Java doesn’t support dead keys at all).

Best thing is, as I never learned proper 10-finger typing, but learned Dvorak
that way, I can switch between QWERTY and Dvorak more or less painlessly (about
10 minutes of confusion, so to say).

Conclusion: I don’t know yet if this was actually a good decision, but it
wasn’t bad, after all. But seeing people’s faces when they try to type on my
machine totally worths it.