What ever happened to the QWERTY alternative keyboard that put the most frequently used letters on the home row?
It was supposed to dramatically increase typing speed.
It is faster. There's the problem though of not being easily able to transition between DSK and QWERTY. A muscle memory thing. And, even though these days changing would be just a matter of changing some software, what do you do about the legends on the keys?
A big factor too, is the entrenchedness of QWERTY.
Dvorak keyboards are available. Just not very popular.
Never caught on.
Too many people were used to the keyboard as it is.
What keyboard are you talking about? The standard QWERTY keyboard is the only keyboard I have ever used. If you receive formal training on QWERTY, you need never consider an alternative.
It's not about having the most frequently used letters on the same row but within easy reach from the home position of asdf jkl;
I took two years of typing in high school. It was the only worthwhile class I ever had in those years. The class had about a 20:1 ratio of girls to boys because it was seen as something that secretaries did so the boys mostly missed out. But career-wise, it was the one skill that got me on a fast-track. When I got into management, most of my fellow managers had to rely on the secretarial pool for everything. Being able to write my own business letters, respond to correspondence much quicker, etc., gave me a huge advantage.