As a fellow Dvorak typer I'm a bit surprised that you've had such a negative experience with it. Therefore I'd like to share my own biased experience.
I'll agree with you on the issues with key-rebinding for gaming and copy/paste becoming more difficult. Going back to typing Azerty/Qwerty becomes a real hurdle and this might be a problem depending on your situation.
But the pain (tendinitis or carpal, I did not check with a doctor) that I experienced after only 2 hours of typing disappeared completely. That being the goal of my change I consider the change a successful one.
I managed to learn Dvorak in 2 months, with the keyboard feeling more natural and logical during the learning period. While it took me years to become proficient with Azerty (the Belgian keyboard-standard). I accelerated my learning process with a simple CLI based typing-trainer.
TL;DR: Dvorak is more difficult in regular life but it can solve pain issues. So I recommend changing to the layout for that purpose.
As a fellow Dvorak typer I'm a bit surprised that you've had such a negative experience with it.
I didn't have a negative experience with Dvorak, it's just virtually pointless when compared to the benefit of consistent, light key pressure, mechanical keys, and a physical design that suits your body.
Dvorak is more difficult in regular life but it can solve pain issues.
> I didn't have a negative experience with Dvorak, it's just virtually pointless when compared to the benefit of consistent, light key pressure, mechanical keys, and a physical design that suits your body.
One common misconception is the idea that RSI is a single thing. It's really just a loose grouping of symptoms with a similar cause. So it's very common for a remedy to be very helpful for one person's RSI and do absolutely nothing for another person's instance of it.
For instance, switching layouts is more likely to bring relief for certain kinds of pain in the fingers, while changing keyboards is more likely to bring relief when the pain is in the wrists and forearms.
I'll agree with you on the issues with key-rebinding for gaming and copy/paste becoming more difficult. Going back to typing Azerty/Qwerty becomes a real hurdle and this might be a problem depending on your situation.
But the pain (tendinitis or carpal, I did not check with a doctor) that I experienced after only 2 hours of typing disappeared completely. That being the goal of my change I consider the change a successful one.
I managed to learn Dvorak in 2 months, with the keyboard feeling more natural and logical during the learning period. While it took me years to become proficient with Azerty (the Belgian keyboard-standard). I accelerated my learning process with a simple CLI based typing-trainer.
TL;DR: Dvorak is more difficult in regular life but it can solve pain issues. So I recommend changing to the layout for that purpose.
*edit: spelling