I've been using the dvorak layout since 2001. Never really had many problems; all operating systems seem to support it, and coworkers are easily trained in the use of one's preferred keyboard switching UI should they need to use one's PC. Initially some people seemed to act as if this was some kind of fad, one that I'd soon get over, but as the months ground on, and then the years (since 2001 I've worked on and off with many of the same group of people), and my keyboard layout didn't change back, this attitude seemed to die down.

The only technical problem I've had, I think, is that at one point if you were the first person to sign in to a remote system over Remote Desktop, you'd imbue that session with your locale and keyboard layout. No good when I happened to be the first person to log in.

I haven't even found my QWERTY skills atrophying that much; on a non-split or laptop keyboard I can type QWERTY without looking at 75wpm, without too many slips. On a split keyboard, like the ones I prefer to use, if I have to type QWERTY then I do have to look at my hands as I type.

I've typed in dvorak day to day since about 2004. I type in querty on my phone without any issues—the devices are different enough that my nervous system doesn't get confused.

On library computers and such I'm reduced to hunt and peck. It's really hard to switch between dvorak and querty and type both well. I like dvorak enough that it's worth not being able to type full speed on random computers.

Sure. I've used Dvorak about 99% of the time since about 2001-2002. Except on my phone; I use QWERTY there, because it's a completely separate skill and the different layouts don't make any difference when you're typing one-fingered (Android's Gesture typing). I actually just tried switching and typing a few sentences, and I keep defaulting to QWERTY gestures.

I can still type QWERTY if I need to, even though I have barely used it in the past 13 years or so, but it takes me a few minutes to adjust and get up to speed. This happens if I need to use someone else's machine, which doesn't happen a lot. They wonder why I'm suddenly typing like an orangutan. But it goes away after maybe 10 minutes, then I'm up to maybe 70% of my Dvorak speed which is good enough for most short-term purposes. It still feels awkward to type QWERTY, so I try not to do it for more than a couple minutes.

(Interestingly, most of the problem when switching comes from punctuation, the muscle memory for typing punctuation seems to be separate in the brain. I noticed this when I was first learning Dvorak. I'd type 'v' instead of periods all the time, even when I was reasonably fluent with typing letters. Now the same thing happens in reverse, where I'll type 'e' or 'w' instead of periods or commas if I'm typing QWERTY.)

Overall, the fact that I'm using a different keyboard layout isn't something that I think about much. I'd be surprised if I'd even thought about it more than twice in the last six months.

I've been using dvorak (and qwerty) since around 2002 or 2003. Currently I type Dvorak on my kinesis keyboard which is hardware reprogrammable, and I type qwerty on "normal" keyboards.

It was a huge boon for my wrists when I switched, as they were starting to hurt but switching gave them a "break" as I learned the new layout, and then the new layout was more comfortable so the wrists stayed comfortable.

I wrote about Dvorak in this comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8705543