When comparing Neo2 (Classic Neo) vs QWERTY, the Slant community recommends QWERTY for most people. In the question“What are the best keyboard layouts for programming?” QWERTY is ranked 5th while Neo2 (Classic Neo) is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose QWERTY is:
You don't have to carry your own keyboard everywhere, QWERTY is pretty popular.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Best for programming
Easily reachable programming relevant symbols, like {}'()|~"_[]<>, on the third layer.
Pro Type mathematical symbols natively
Pro Many layers
You can type more symbols and letters, that do not even exist on other keyboard layouts.
Pro Its possible to type letters from the International Phonetic Alphabet
Pro Popular
You don't have to carry your own keyboard everywhere, QWERTY is pretty popular.
Pro Default keyboard shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts for most applications were designed with QWERTY in mind.
Pro Good for Vim users
Vim is most natural in QWERTY, since this is the layout it was designed on. Learning a good editor will help with your programming a lot more than learning a new layout.
Pro Easy access to important keys
Some of the most used keys in programming such as ; . / " | ' < > * are very easily accessible because they either have their own keys or are "shift options". People who grew up using alternative layouts, such as Belgian AZERTY, know from experience this shouldn't be taken for granted.
Cons
Con Developed primarly for the German language
English is considered a major target, but the homepage and docs are mostly in German.
Con Harder to learn
Con Not an easy to gain speed on QWERTY
Learning to touch type using traditional touch typing methods, you would not be as fast as others on Dvorak and you would be making quite a few mistakes.
The reasons that most of record holders have placing in typing speeds is because they do not use traditional typing methods.
Con Made for typewriters, not computers
It was created before computers got popular. This layout was created for typing machines, so as to prevent collision between character hammers from slowing down the typist.
Con Very unintuitive
Why QWERTY?