Frequently Asked Questions

What is the mat made of?

The mat is thick neoprene (mousepad material) and printed with heat sublimation. The border is electroluminescent (EL) wire and is quite bright.

Why does it have a plug?

The border can light up with LED RGB color.

What kind of LED?

It's a very bright EL wire around the border. The mat has 8 colors and 3 animation modes: static, pulse, and breathing.

Linux is a Kernel not a userland.

Absolutely correct. These commands are not "Linux" as Linux refers to just the kernel. Most of these commands are in userland and run on any Linux box and many of them would run on any other *nix system that follows POSIX. But all that didn't fit in the title. :)

Isn't this information in the man pages?

Yes of course... if you know where to look. There is a ton more information in the man pages than would ever fit on a deskmat. This is meant for assisting quick recall of important commands and arguments.

I already know all this.

That's great! We dedicated a ton of space to systemd, journalctl, docker, and kubernetes for our more advanced wizards.

Does the keyboard prevent me from reading the mat?

Yes but you can nudge or lift your keyboard to see underneath it.

What distro is this for?

There isn't anything distro specific on the mat. We focus on core commands that should be present on most linux installs. It does include systemd which is present on most distros these days.

I'm worried I won't be able to read the text.

If you are concerned about accessibility send us a message at support -at- shellwizardry.com and we can figure out a custom print to fit your needs.

Can I get the source code?

Sure. Send us an email at support -at- shellwizardry.com and we will send you the source in YAML format.

Does it include a cell phone charger?

It does not. That's something we're exploring with our supplier.

What USB connection is it using?

The mat ships with a USB-A to USB-C cable and the mat takes USB-C for power.

I am a student or educator, can I get a discount?

Probably. Send us an email at support -at- shellwizardry.com to start the discussion.

Can I buy in bulk?

Probably. Send us an email at support -at- shellwizardry.com to start the discussion.

Sysop is an antiquated term.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Those BBSes and IRC servers were fun back in the day, weren't they?

Does this support common RGB platforms like HyperX or Razer?

Unfortunately, no.

What about vi keybindings for readline?

We may launch this in the future follow us on social or email to be notified if we launch this customization.