(Instructions for doing this on other OSes or setups are welcome!)

The idea here is that we use the symbols at the top of the keyboard a lot more often than the numbers at the top of the keyboard. In my case because I write a lot of perl :)

Here are the various configurations that you can set to switch the number keys and symbol keys in Linux/X11 -- effectively making it so you don't press shift for the symbols but you DO for the numbers.

Configuration

The first, .Xmodmap, is what actually switches things. The others are to make other applications be OK with the new setup.

From: ~/.Xmodmap

! Swap the numbers and symbols
keycode  10 = exclam 1
keycode  11 = at 2
keycode  12 = numbersign 3
keycode  13 = dollar 4
keycode  14 = percent 5
keycode  15 = asciicircum 6
keycode  16 = ampersand 7
keycode  17 = asterisk 8
keycode  18 = parenleft 9
keycode  19 = parenright 0

! And the curlies while we're at it
keycode  34 = braceleft bracketleft
keycode  35 = braceright bracketright

Once you put your .Xmodmap in place (and do "xmodmap .Xmodmap" to load it), your buttons are swapped! But you might find, as I did, that other applications with key-modifiers expected those same keys to be numbers. Some of them you can just hold down an extra 'shift' for, but some you can't. And that's no fun anyway.

I did try to do some fancy stuff with xmodmap and then with x11 xkb configuration to make it so that alt+n (no shift) still sent the number key. But I gave up. Suggestions welcome.

First thing that I fixed is my XMonad Window Manager. It uses alt+n to switch workspaces, so I made it so it can additionally use alt+symbol.

From: ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

-- This is in my keybinding section
-- Also switch to spacial workspace for symbol keys
[((m .|. modm, k), windows $ f i)
    | (i, k) <- zip myWorkspaces symbolKeys
    , (f, m) <- [(W.greedyView, 0), (W.shift, shiftMask)]]

-- ... later in the file ...
-- symbol keys, sorted by order of switching
symbolKeys = [ xK_exclam, xK_at, xK_numbersign
             , xK_dollar, xK_percent, xK_asciicircum
             , xK_ampersand,  xK_asterisk,  xK_parenleft
             , xK_parenright]

Next is screen. It uses ctrl-a, N to switch to the Nth window. ctrl-a, shift-N works, but is no fun. So this will make it so you do ctrl-a, symbol.

From: ~/.screenrc

# Allow switching using symbols
bind !  select 1
bind @  select 2
bind \# select 3
bind $  select 4
bind %  select 5
bind \^ select 6
bind &  select 7
bind *  select 8
bind (  select 9
bind )  select 0

Mike does the same thing with Gnome Terminal. He fixed his using the GUI, and it produced this gconf file. You might be able to just drop it in.

From: ~/.gconf/apps/gnome-terminal/keybinding/%gconf.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_9" mtime="1300280884" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;parenleft</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_8" mtime="1300280880" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;asterisk</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_7" mtime="1300280878" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;ampersand</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_6" mtime="1300280876" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;asciicircum</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_5" mtime="1300280873" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;percent</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_4" mtime="1300280871" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;dollar</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_3" mtime="1300280867" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;numbersign</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_2" mtime="1300280865" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;at</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_10" mtime="1300280859" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;parenright</stringvalue>
        </entry>
        <entry name="switch_to_tab_1" mtime="1300280849" type="string">
                <stringvalue>&lt;Alt&gt;exclam</stringvalue>
        </entry>
</gconf>

Results of Usage

2011.03.18

• Entering passwords is tricky
• I find it very difficult to type :) because I type it so often and fast
• Most of the time I find myself still pressing shift when I don't need to
• Less often is not pressing shift when I need numbers
• Vim line-number or count-based operations have become annoying
• Mike noted that "select count(*)" is easier to type :)

2011.10.21

• I am now also using xbindkeys to make 'shift+shift' (left+right) toggle the setup. That way I can easily switch it back if some other poor fool is trying to use my laptop. On my desktop it isn't a problem since I have the number pad.
• Some number-oriented features line-number are actually easier. For example, in vim when jumping to line 343, I have to press shift to get ':' anyway. so ':343' I hold shift the whole time
• I'm still using this full time, and the main annoying thing is using other people's broken keyboards :)