Since about 2011 I've started using dvorak as my main keyboard layout and like the efficiency compared to QWERTY.
Since having to setup the keyboard after login can be useful if you don't have the rights to edit system configuration files on your system(eg. work) but it's not a durable solution for your own system. If you want to make these things semipermanent you can use the handy program called localectl which writes an xorg.conf.d/ file. In my specific case these are the commands to set the keymap for the console and for within X. For the console I only use normal dvorak whereas in X I want to be able to switch(with menu key) and use the right alt as compose key.
# localectl set-x11-keymap --no-convert dvorak,ru pc104 ,phonetic_dvorak compose:ralt,grp:menu_toggle # localectl set-keymap --no-convert dvorak
When learning russian I had to type some stuff in russian, as I found out that there was a phonetic keyboard I was excited but it didn't work on dvorak layout. So some guy named Oleg made a phonetic russian keyboard layout in dvorak and you can download it here. When you want to use it you have to append the information from the file to
/usr/share/X11//xkb/symbols/ruWhen you want to load it you can type
setxkbmap -layout ru -variant phonetic_dvorak
To use dvorak in dos download this file containing dvorak.com
Transfer it to your C:\DOS folder for example and add this to your AUTOEXEC.bat:
C:\DOS\DVORAK.COMWhen your computer boots the program will say DVORAK is loaded and you're good to go
Dvorak is also usable in dosbox via a custom mapper file that your can find here
You can enable the layout by saving this in your settings directory and
mapperfile=dvorak-0.74.mapto your sdl section of your dosbox config.