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14 Jun 2025

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Is 2025 finally the year of Linux? We asked shoppers at Micro Center
Ah, the perennial question: Is this the year of Linux? That magical tipping point for mainstream adoption has always hovered as a hope in Linux fans’ minds. And indeed, 2025 seems ripe with opportunity, especially with Windows 10 facing its end in October. The topic has come up more than once on The Full Nerd, PCWorld’s weekly hardware podcast. So when surrounded by scores of nerds at the recent opening of Micro Center in Santa Clara, co-host Adam Patrick Murray did what any reasonable person would: He sought out Linux users in the crowd to get their take. Turns out, Windows users still dominate—even at a store like Micro Center, which attracts the most enthusiastic hardware enthusiasts. But with a little persistence (and some people volunteering their friends to go on camera), Adam does find several Linux users to talk with, ranging from a year-plus of use to over 20 (!). The interview that still keeps me up at night: the worker who’s only ever known Linux, presumably since the cradle. How does that happen? Is it parentage? Philosophical leanings? Budget? I may never know, but I’ll always want to know. The most interesting part of all the Linux talk was a quick statistic: That with the coming death of Windows, Linux adoption could allegedly jump to as much as seven percent. That would almost double the current estimated market share of four percent. If that happens, 2025 could be reasonably called the year of Linux. (Exciting?) Either way, Windows 10’s death is indeed coming in just four months. If your PC can’t make the upgrade, you should start thinking now about your options—and Linux is one of them. Wondering about distros? We have a few suggestions that look and feel like Windows. In fact, Adam, Will, and I are all trying Linux to see if it might stick for us. We’ll definitely be talking about our experiences on coming episodes of the The Full Nerd, which you can tune into (or catch up on via our companion newsletter!) on Tuesdays. Otherwise, subscribe to the PCWorld YouTube channel for more interviews and hardware coverage.

Windows 11’s Voice typing tool saved my aching hand
Hey, PCWorld readers! Windows 11 has a bunch of hidden features that I consider unrealized gems — utilities and tools that aren’t widely used, but when Windows users do discover them, most are duly impressed by what they find. One such gem is the Windows 11 Voice typing tool (a voice-to-text dictation tool). I’d known about it previously, but I only really realized its potential when I got a bad case of RSI in my mouse hand and thought I’d have a go at dictating an article sans keyboard to give it a rest. My impression after a few minutes of voice typing was that it’s surprisingly accurate, despite me giving it no training. I was outputting my laptop’s display to an external monitor at the time and wasn’t even directly speaking into the microphone, yet the tool managed to reproduce what I was saying with near-perfect accuracy in Notepad. I was also impressed by the fact it supports 36 different languages and multiple variants of some of the more widely spoken ones. Editing was a little hard at first, but after I memorized a few commands, I found I could insert punctuation without much fuss. Sign up for PCWorld’s Try This newsletter to get fast, handy tips like this delivered straight to your inbox twice a week! Here’s how to use it… Type Windows + H to open the Voice typing tool — it comes pre-installed with Windows 11 and is active by default. Also open the text app or program you’d like to use it with. For this demonstration I used the Notepad app, but it also works with Microsoft Word. Now dictate the words you’d like to be typed. You can find a list of commands and punctuation commands on the Microsoft Support website. Click on the microphone icon in the Voice typing box to stop. The Windows 11 Voice typing tool lets you dictate speech to text. Dominic Bayley / Foundry Take care, until next time! And, if you like this tip and want more like it, be sure to sign up to the PCWorld Try This newsletter.

Embassy of Israel in Wellington closes amid international conflict
It's part of a worldwide closure of the country's diplomatic missions.

The Full Nerd: PCIe 6.0 inbound, ChatGPT rekt by Atari, & Alienware Lego-fied
Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting news from across the web. This week, we’re…clawing our way back to health. Attending the Nintendo Switch 2 launch at our local Nintendo Store felled both Adam and Will, delaying our usual Tuesday episode. But don’t worry: I still have plenty of juicy news bits to share with you below. Also our Micro Center tour videos are live! Plus, now that Adam and Will are feeling better, we’ll still have a stream—catch us on live on Friday morning (6/13). Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox every Friday? Sign up on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd… With the plague having temporarily overtaken Adam and Will, I don’t have a Full Nerd episode to tease—but there are two Micro Center videos to share. (And a third is on the way.) Adam was very excited to meet YouTuber mryeester in person. Trust me, I have so many pictures. Will Smith / Foundry When you visit the opening of a store you’ve wanted in your area for ages, what do you do? Explore all day, of course. We wandered the aisles, talked to the people in lines, and even bought some goodies for ourselves. (You may recognize a couple of the interviewees.) For an extra Easter egg, drop by our Discord server—Adam posted an extra clip that’s pinned in the #general channel. “Is this the year of Linux?” has been a running joke (but also serious consideration) on our show for a bit, and so Adam decided to take the question to the people. He tried to find Linux users at Micro Center—which was surprisingly (or not surprisingly? –Brad) more difficult than expected. The happy surprise? Running into a friend of the show who turned out to be a 20-year Linux veteran! (That surprised shout you hear in the background when he tells us his tenure? That was me, forgetting how hot the mics are.) As for the video that completes the trifecta, we quizzed people on the hardware they rolled up to buy—as well as what they’re rocking now. Unlike the operating system discussion, a lot more of PC building’s diversity showed its colors here. My favorite quote? The Mac user who said he’d eventually have the “religious discussion” with his kid about what hardware to choose for a build. Can’t wait for our next live show? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd YouTube channel, and activate notifications. We also answer viewer questions in real-time! And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds. This week’s best nerd news Outside of the teeny one applied to my Raspberry Pi 4, I haven’t thought about thermal pads in years.Honeywell Sometimes, joy comes from delightful news. (For example, a RTX 5070 graphics card that houses a whole PC.) Other times, a non-zero amount of schadenfreude is the result. (I really dislike the overhyping of AI, and I like when that gets pointed out.) This week, I got to experience both kinds of feelings. Perhaps you will, too. This modded RTX 5070 graphics card hides a full-blown mini PC within: Bored with your usual small-form factor PC builds? Boutique desktop builder CherryTree’s got something for you—a hollowed out 5070 that holds a whole PC. Including RGB lights. RTX 5090 stock may improve, then get worse: July 9 is when high tariffs on Chinese goods go back into effect—and so MSI and Gigabyte are rushing to get as many cards to U.S. shores before that happens. But after that stock runs out, no one’s certain what U.S. fiscal policy will be…so if you want this flagship card, you may want to jump quickly in the next couple of months. Do you know these 5 new PC cooling advancements? I’ll admit, this rundown of 5 newer PC cooling technologies makes my standard air cooler seem like the equivalent of farming with a scythe. I can’t wait to see the pumpless water cooler in action. Researchers converted old phones into ‘tiny data centers,’ then used them to watch marine life: Reusing old tech in this novel way hits just right—I hate having devices lying around that I know could be still in service. Seems like automated monitoring is the best use case, so: Best peaceful animal livestreams, incoming? (I’d watch starfish scuttle around on an ocean floor. Or hedgehogs roll around. The world offers so many possibilities.) This new Alienware Lego kit is too “expensive”: The only way to acquire one of these Lego kit is to earn points through Alienware’s website and social media channels, but I will never earn 10,000 in a reasonable amount of time. Alienware, can’t I just throw money at this problem? Isn’t that why I have a job? This is so cool.ZealousidealWorry881/Reddit PCIe 6.0 products are finally on the way: Sure, the specifications for PCIe 7.0 got formally announced, but the real news is PCI 6.0 products will appear in 2025. Most likely, the first sightings will happen at the end of the year, but that’s still a welcome start. Forgot how nightmarish GPU boxes used to look? This book can fix that: Some things were meant to be left to be buried by the sands of time. I still have a GPU box from 2010 and let me tell you, it is tame compared to the horrors chronicled in this coffee table book. Is right now the worst timeline for being a PC gamer? This is a question we asked of Steve Burke of Gamers Nexus, and the answer was a grim “Yes.” Between hardware and game prices going up, PC gamers may be best off hunkering down with what they’ve already got, including your gigantic backlog of free Epic Games downloads. This 80s-inspired, retro-futurist PC battlestation is pretty dope: Just look at the pictures and you’ll understand why my colleague Michael Crider was reduced to expressing his longing in all caps. (Like him, I also look forward to the video detailing the build process.) ‘Get rekt, ChatGPT’: OK, no one actually said this, but if a nearly 50-year old Atari game could talk, that’s what I imagine it’d say to ChatGPT after the AI chatbot wiped out at basic chess. Even Advanced AI Suffers ‘Accuracy Collapse’ in the Face of Complex Problems: Yes, I’m dogpiling a bit on AI. (I may have a low tolerance for current models and their…quirks. I would use a stronger word, but my boss reads this newsletter.) If this technology is to truly help improve our lives, its shortcomings should be recognized and addressed—so I’m glad a major tech company is weighing in with realistic concerns about AI’s abilities. That’s all for this week—we should be back on our regular schedule next Tuesday. Catch you all then! -Alaina This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.