I use it, one of my friends uses it, and one of the former network admins at my school uses it.

I found it much easier learn and become good with. it is more comfortable, at least for me.
most words are some variation of a finger rolling motion, much less vertical movement.
the average person can't use it, especially if the keyboard isn't properly marked, which can be a pain, but most people can find the keymap switching applet.
it isn't always easy to make available to yourself at a school, library or work.

I say use it if it suits you, but make sure you can still type on a standard US keyboard in case you have to.

i use dvorak exclusively, one thing youll notice (as stated already) is its rather easy to learn, once you mark your keyboard or move your keys to the new layout. All the vowels are under one hand, just below the most popular punctuation marks. The most popular constants are in easy reach of the other hand, and all in all, it feels natural when typing english words. All it takes to learn is a properly setup keyboard (so you can see the letters when you are first starting out), and some time.

To the (old) post of apepost above. I know a 4th reason.

A friend of mine was using a dvorak layout in the office. He never needed to lock his computer, because if you sat at his desk and tried to type anything (email, web browser, etc.) you would never get it right... (quertz keys with dvorak layout).

As all linux users know, sticking out of the crowd increases your security. Well at least in the IT world... [hence, joins the first reason why to use dvorak ;-)]

how about typing programs in dvorak? That's how I learned to type(not using 3 fingers on each hand:)). Thoughts?

you dont need typing programs. Just open a text editor, and type up a essay, try only looking at the keys when needed. Since the keyboard is the same, the fingures go to the same spots, only the what the keys mean changes.

I learned the layout just by using a terminal to install Linux and a distro.

that would do it. I don't know, I'm doing fine w/ qwerty for now. Is there any way to change back and forth at will?

I tried to switch to dvorak layout about a year ago, but decided against it when trying to use the cli...

in qwerty the command "ls" is nice and easy, just hit both wring fingers... in dvorak, 'ls' requires you to use the right pinky twice in a row, which is rather uncomfortable to type. I also had trouble with curly braces, i forgot where they are in dvorak but i found that they were difficult to reach.

When typing in English i could definitely see the advantage, but when programming or at the cli, it isn't quite as comfortable, since all cli commands are basically words without vowels :P and that's what dvorak is optimised for.

I guess you could get used to it though, just like the word "pop" in qwerty is kind of a strain...

other than that, dvorak is much healthier, as stated above.

Does anyone know how to switch to the left handed dvorak version? I am looking into llearning dvorak, and want to learn with one hand so I can use my other freely with my mouse.

I have used the dvorak keyboard for a while now. I love it. Caution... Over time you will get very screwy when you try to use the qwerty layout.

Did you ever find out how to do this? My right arm is in some pain and I want to use my left hand only. But I cannot see how to do this in linux (use left-handed dvorak, i mean).

did you try

loadkeys dvorak-l

??

I ripped off all my keys, put them they way dvorak is set up, changed in my settings that I'm using a dvorak keyboard... im to use qwerty... i put all my keys back.

If I learned dvorak right away, I might've liked it.

I've switched to dvorak after having used qwerty for much longer, I've gotten almost as fast with it in a short time and a bit faster not too long after, since my typing speed never was all that great to begin with. First I put stickers with the new letters over the keys, then after a while I too ripped it appart and reassembled it. My typing technique is probably all wrong, but since I switched to dvorak I don't seem to be having any hand problems anymore. For good measure, I've also switched to a trackball recently.

I would have prefered to instead have switched to some sort of massively redesigned keyboard, like a maltron or a kinesis contoured ergonomic, but they're expensive and hard to find.