I didn't find switching too bad, but I also set up my own layout for the non-alphabetic keys. So I don't find it hard to remember where most of the special char

I didn't find switching too bad, but I also set up my own layout for the non-alphabetic keys. So I don't find it hard to remember where most of the special characters are, because I just thought "where is the first place I'd look for them", and put them there. Then, when I have to figure it out, my first guess is usually correct. The only ones I mess up are - and =, which are the two innermost bottom keys of the "letter" clusters. But it's a small issue; I'm sure I could practice for a bit and make it easier. > Does the columnar layout provide some advantage? To me, I like the fact that if a keyboard was designed without paying attention to historical accident, there's no way you'd make it a row-based keyboard, but would instead make a columnar keyboard, or perhaps slightly staggered. To me, the thumb clusters are a big reason to switch. But then, I'm a big shortcut fan -- I use Emacs a lot. But then, I also didn't have that difficult a time switching from QWERTY to Colemak, so perhaps my brain easily changes this kind of thing.