I don't quite agree with your argument on the form factor and the key layout.
About four to five months ago, I made the switch from AZERTY to BEPO, and it's not that long to get used to it.
I spend some time doing exercises (maybe half an hour per day), to learn the home row and the main keys, without looking at the keyboard (touch typing). Then I printed the layout that I put next to my screen, and just used that as a reference when I switched using only bepo. To be frank, the first two weeks I typed really slowly, then it for better, and now I can type reliably without looking at my keyboard.
Then I got a ortholinear split keyboard (so all the keys in a grid, and the keyboard in two parts). The switch was really easy, as you already know which finger goes for which key, and it's even more straightforward since everything's on a grid.
Also, those kind of keyboards come with the great advantage that you can do what you want with the firmware on it (it's called qmk firmware), so it's up to you to decide how you put your modifiers. For example, I noticed I only used my left thumb to press space, so I decided to assign the two keys under my right thumb to return and backspace, so I make minimal movement to access those keys I use often. Also, you can decide to map your function keys to every functionality you want, so I put the directional keys vim-like, on the right home row.
The existence of a "home row" is a historical misunderstanding. There never was a "home row" - it was a later explanation for placing your fingers where the arrow keys were before there were arrow keys, i.e. in the 1970s. Your nav block should probably be named the "home row" today ... ;-)
I am not a good idol for which keyboard to buy and which layout to use with it. I never learned to use ten fingers to type. But I still won a typing contest at school, so that's OK for me. To each their own!
Bepo is a layout made on the same methodology as Dvorak, but for French, with a good placement of characters often used by programmers (semicolumn, brackets, curly brackets etc.). It has quite a good community around it, so it's not that hard to find help on how to make your software behave well with bepo (for example, vim configuration).
For the home row, there might be no historical meaning behind it, but it means all my keys are at most 2 keys away from my fingers, so I'll take it as it is.
But of course, to each their own, if you can type fine without all of that, and don't have any risk of problems with your wrists, then it's all good :)
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I don't quite agree with your argument on the form factor and the key layout.
About four to five months ago, I made the switch from AZERTY to BEPO, and it's not that long to get used to it.
I spend some time doing exercises (maybe half an hour per day), to learn the home row and the main keys, without looking at the keyboard (touch typing). Then I printed the layout that I put next to my screen, and just used that as a reference when I switched using only bepo. To be frank, the first two weeks I typed really slowly, then it for better, and now I can type reliably without looking at my keyboard.
Then I got a ortholinear split keyboard (so all the keys in a grid, and the keyboard in two parts). The switch was really easy, as you already know which finger goes for which key, and it's even more straightforward since everything's on a grid.
Also, those kind of keyboards come with the great advantage that you can do what you want with the firmware on it (it's called qmk firmware), so it's up to you to decide how you put your modifiers. For example, I noticed I only used my left thumb to press space, so I decided to assign the two keys under my right thumb to return and backspace, so I make minimal movement to access those keys I use often. Also, you can decide to map your function keys to every functionality you want, so I put the directional keys vim-like, on the right home row.
The existence of a "home row" is a historical misunderstanding. There never was a "home row" - it was a later explanation for placing your fingers where the arrow keys were before there were arrow keys, i.e. in the 1970s. Your nav block should probably be named the "home row" today ... ;-)
I am not a good idol for which keyboard to buy and which layout to use with it. I never learned to use ten fingers to type. But I still won a typing contest at school, so that's OK for me. To each their own!
I never heard of BEPO though.
That's still where my arrow keys are.
Why aren't yours?
Because I have actual arrow keys and I don't use vi/Vim.
Bepo is a layout made on the same methodology as Dvorak, but for French, with a good placement of characters often used by programmers (semicolumn, brackets, curly brackets etc.). It has quite a good community around it, so it's not that hard to find help on how to make your software behave well with bepo (for example, vim configuration).
For the home row, there might be no historical meaning behind it, but it means all my keys are at most 2 keys away from my fingers, so I'll take it as it is.
But of course, to each their own, if you can type fine without all of that, and don't have any risk of problems with your wrists, then it's all good :)