Also, it'd be all very well using Dvorak at home, but what about at work? We hot desk to a fair degree so I can't use Dvorak there. Sprocket said it took him a month of using Dvorak exclusively to become proficient - that's just not possible in my situation.
And that right there illustrates one of the difficulties of learning Dvorak, and a valid reason why you shouldn't switch.
Some other reasons, to be fair:
* If you're a terrible typist (or a hunt-and-pecker) on QWERTY, you're likely to be a terrible typist (or a hunt-and-pecker) on Dvorak. In that case the primary reason to switch to Dvorak is probably meaningless to you.
* To be proficient, you either need to have superhuman learning ability, or (like the rest of us) you need to work on Dvorak exclusively for a significant period, likely a month or more. Dvorak might be easier to learn than QWERTY, but that doesn't mean you can
unlearn QWERTY overnight.
* Along those lines, switching between Dvorak and QWERTY while you're still training in Dvorak is highly detrimental overall. Don't do it.
* Mobile devices do not widely support Dvorak (virtually all smartphones with a keyboard are QWERTY in the U.S.), and support for Dvorak will likely never be widely supported.
* Some people
never regain their speed in QWERTY, and/or never see any noticeable gain. In this case the only reason to use Dvorak would be comfort over speed.
* In my experience, few people that are proficient in Dvorak are
also proficient in QWERTY. Those that are, they're the exception and not the rule. To become proficient in both takes incredible time and skill, and most people lack the former.
* Your workplace might not allow you to use Dvorak at all. In this case, you're hosed.
* Many computer programs have keymaps designed around QWERTY, and changing them is either very difficult or impossible altogether. You either have to adapt to using Dvorak keymaps (which are often pretty awkward) or suck it up and use QWERTY.
Additionally Dvorak does have some specific disadvantages over QWERTY:
* Programming (which relies heavily on symbol usage) is sometimes more difficult due to some symbols being awkwardly placed.
* Non-English languages (such as Spanish, German, and French) don't always adapt to Dvorak as well (although there are foreign language variants). This is a killer if your primary language is not English.
* Keyboard shortcuts for Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Save (Ctrl + Z, X, C, V, S) are very awkward in Dvorak.
Certainly alternate keyboard layouts (like colemak) have some merit over Dvorak for specific applications, and its impossible to disagree with every one of them.
Also I should point out that I learned Dvorak while still in high school. If I were 40-something, learning Dvorak would probably be
much harder (people tend to learn new skills faster at a younger age)