I wonder what this says about Colemak: http://colemak.com/
Does anyone on hubski use an alternative layout for their keyboard? I use vim regularly on multiple machines, so it would require a lot of reconfiguring for me personally.
I have been using Dvorak for about ten years now. I use vim all day at work but I guess it doesn't really bother me - I never did any reconfiguration. I never learned vim in QWERTY so maybe that helped. I haven't looked into Colemak too much but it seems pretty cool.
I use colemak. I'm in the process of building a portable USB/Bluetooth keyboard that has hardware colemak support, to make using multiple machines easier. The only vim reconfiguration i do for colemak purposes is to swap the functionality of N and J. Same for less pager, line editing mode in my shell, and my web browser. I keep a repository of my config that i can just git clone on a new machine but the colemak-specific changes are minor enough that I can type them in a few seconds or just live without them if necessary.
Have you noticed an actual improvement? Obviously you're enjoying it since you want a portable keyboard to use everywhere. My problem is mostly that I have to share vim configs with others (or remember to source my own every time I use vim on a server). I might give it a try I think I have an extra keyboard I could change for fun.
I haven't noticed speed improvement but I haven't been measuring either. I adopted Colemak mainly to stave off RSI which I started having problems with at 21. I selected Colemak over Dvorak simply because vim config and the learning curve were easier, but I think now perhaps I should have gone with Workman and a matrix board.
Posture is the most important thing. All of my problems were due to poor posture that bent my wrists unnecessarily. I didn't own or have the space for a real desk or chair, which allowed the situation to devolve pretty horribly. Keep your forearms level so your wrists can be straight. Get a wrist rest to place in front of your keyboard AND pointing device. Small, split boards like the ergodox are nice because they let you adjust horizontal placement so you're not turning your arms inward, and also don't have that giant block of numpad etc on the right that force you to reach way over for the mouse. If not something as radical as an ergodox use a 60% or tenkeyless at least. You don't need 104 keys as much as you might think. Avoid software that requires heavy use of awkward key chording, prefer modes and single keystrokes, and map your modifiers to be more easily accessible (classical Ctrl placement etc).