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The Current State of Linux Video Editing

An anonymous reader writes: The VFX industry has for most of the last 30 years been reliant on Macs and Windows machines for video editing, primarily because all of the Linux-based FOSS tools have been less than great. This is a shame, because all of the best 3D and 2D tools, other than video, are entrenched in the Linux environment and perform best there. The lack of decent video editing tools on Linux prevents every VFX studio from becoming a Linux-only shop. That being said, there are some strides being made to bridge this gap. What setup do you use? What's still missing?

3 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Blender by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interesting conclusion they come to with Blender. They have been making rapid improvements and enhancements to both features and interface. I've dabbled in Blender before and after the 2.5 redesign and while I didn't actually find the old Blender difficult to use (it took me 30 mins of dedicated time), the new one is better still. BUT I haven't used the video editing stuff, though I do know it was there. Must give it a try next time.

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
  2. Re:Attitudes by KugelKurt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Things won't improve until two things are addressed. First FOSS devs drop the attitude that "It crashes sometimes" is an acceptable condition for software intended for productive work.

    Really? That's the attitude of FOSS developers? I call that BS.
    I think chances are spoiled users of proprietary software mistake being able to communicate directly with the developers with entitlement that a developer has to jump directly when a user discovers a bug.
    No, bugs are handled with different priorities and just because a bug annoys you the most, it is not necessarily the most crucial bug to fix first.

    If you want bug priorities to change, just announce to give 100 bucks to whoever fixes a bug you run into.
    Bug bounty programs are quite common in FOSS.

  3. avidemux by nluv4hs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As the proprietary vendors business models change, Linux video editing has increasing advantages, e.g. the lack of "subscription" business model. Avidemux is very powerful and actively developed.

    If you have a Windows install and you buy Adobe Premiere Elements for $90, you will discover you must sign in, and Premiere Elements will max out your incoming internet connection for the entire time the program is open. But Premiere Elements works fine for video editing if you disable networking in control panel. So what's it doing with all that bandwidth?!