Do I hear crickets chirping?

Maybe your son would also like a Zune and a Betamax VCR.  I also hear that PalmPilots are very good - great user interface.

Andy, Betamax was the better technology but was too expensive and under marketed. I believe that Betamax was the standard in media outlets like news, TV, etc. long after it was no longer available for consumers.

Zune was a terrible attempt by Microsoft to build a better iPod. It failed.

Dvorak is better, from a speed, accuracy, ergonomic point of view. But, because so few people know about it, it's not taught. But, it's a great thing. There's no reason to dismiss it out of hand.

And for the record, I was typing for about 5-8 years before I made the switch. And I can still type QWERTY with reasonable speed and accuracy.

The way I see it, it's like learning another language. Why *not* learn something that has legitimate claims at being better and decide for yourself?

Hi Zonker, I like the idea. I am desperately looking for a more efficient keyboard.

But what about this?

http://minuum.com/#!prettyPhoto

Sorry: I was being playful - no disrespect intended.

  The Betamax thing was kind of my point, though. It was undoubtedly the best format but this makes little difference once the market builds momentum.

Once you start working internationally you have to grapple with multiple layouts anyway (I have three variations just at home) so there's no harm picking a favourite.

I was really just looking for an opportunity to use that tumbleweed gif.

great tumbleweed.gif. how about this youtube clip? (turn down your audio)

@maja that looks cool, too, but that's for mobile devices. I'm talking about laptops and keyboards. silly internet kiosks at airports and youth hostels, etc.

but even so, the minuum keyboard is still based on the QWERTY layout. Perhaps Dvorak would not be better in minuum format, but maybe another layout would be even better.

Actually, on my iPhone, surroundings-permitting, I often dictate with Siri. Yes, it leads to some interesting "words" but most of the time it's my speech that was at fault, or some errant microphone input....