# Adopting non-qwerty keyboards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 13, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839 "2018-07-13T13:28:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839/1 "2018-07-13T13:28:27Z")

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Why have efforts to replace the qwerty keyboard met with so little success? The world managed to (largely) adopt the metric system as a standard, why can’t/won’t countries using a roman alphabet adopt a more efficient keyboard design?

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839/2 "2018-07-13T13:40:35Z")

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Seems like a solution in search of a problem. I meab, how is “abcdef” any less arbitrary than “qwerty”?

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**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839/3 "2018-07-13T13:55:22Z")

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[The Master Speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/221/was-the-qwerty-keyboard-purposely-designed-to-slow-typists/)

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adopting-non-qwerty-keyboards/817839/4 "2018-07-13T14:09:45Z")

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To be absolutely optimal, keyboard design would vary by language. Right now, most latin-alphabet languages use qwerty variations: the majority of the letters are in the same spots, with variations on how to handle additional letters and other signs (ø, ç, ñ, é, !..). Even the much-hated+ azerty is very, very similar to qwerty.

My phone’s putocorrector\* already hates me because I write in multiple languages. Why would I want to have to look for letters in different spots for each of those languages?

- by anybody who can touch-type on qwerty.

- is absolutely the right name for that thing.