Nine video editing programs for Linux compared
Video technology has exploded in the past several years: Video capability is now a standard feature on most high-end mobile phones, and a menagerie of other inexpensive video devices now inhabit the high-tech landscape. But eye-witness footage alone does not make for a compelling film. The new legions of camera users need editing tools to cut out the rough parts and assemble the snippets into polished products. No fewer than nine free video editing programs vie for the favor of Linux-conscious filmmakers. All these tools are capable of editing videos, arranging them into a new work of art, and furnishing them with effects.
The proprietary but free Lightworks joined the lineup at the start of 2014. In this article, I explore the crowded field of Linux video editing alternatives, including Cinelerra, Flowblade, Kdenlive, Kino, Lightworks, LiVES, OpenShot, Pitivi, and Shotcut. Most of these tools are guided by the methods of professional video editing programs like Adobe Premiere Pro: You drag and drop movie snippets on a timeline to create your video, and when you're finished editing, you export the video into a new file.
Cinelerra
Adam Williams attaches great importance to a stable program. He therefore updates his video editing program Cinelerra [1] only once a year, and each version has only a few new features. Williams's website provides an archive with a binary version for the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 14.04, whereas users of other distributions have to compile the source text themselves.
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