Although the jury is still out on whether or not alternative keyboard layouts really do stress on the joints and tendons in typical day-to-day typing excercises, and that even the speed-typing results aren’t very clear, one salient fact hasn’t been disputed: There is no real reason to ever use the QWERTY layout. Following no real pattern, rhyme, or reason, the QWERTY layout is difficult to memorize, difficult to adapt to, and difficult to master. But every single OS out there uses QWERTY as the default, and it’s not always easy to change.
The reasons vary, but whether it’s lack of user privileges, difficulty of installing new keyboard layouts, not having enough time, or simply using an OS that doesn’t support anything but QWERTY, the fact remains that a software-fixed keyboard layout isn’t always the best answer. It certainly is a very flexible solution – especially on the operating systems that let you drag and drop letters around to create your own keyboard layout that acts exactly the way you want it – but it’s not necessarily the only one.