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Comment by riprowan | Hacker News Reader

This is my problem. Audio editing on Linux is a joke. For everything else I do, Linux can get me there. So I need a Mac or a PC as an audio editor? Might as well just get a Mac or a PC. I'll have to maintain it anyway, and it can do everything Linux can do, plus probably be better supported.

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Would like to point out, unless you are running on non-x86 hardware or a tablet, the term pc still applies to linux based hardware.

It technically also applies to Macs -- but in practice it means Windows-based desktops and laptops.

What about video editing? I mean, I can live with Audacity for my basic needs, but I can't find anything simple as iMovie. Or should I just bite the bullet and learn Blender? Does it have preset screen transitions and stuff like that?

I've had great success with Kdenlive. It's not as simple as iMovie, but it isn't too hard to get started.

Have you tried openshot[1]? I haven't played much with it recently, but when it came out it was the most stable, simple video editor for linux.

[1] http://openshot.org/

No. Wow, a lot of great suggestions here. I need to test stuff now :)

I'm using OpenShot, it's perfectly serviceable, particularly the new 2.x version. There's also LightWorks and many other that works really well.

There's also Flowblade from Finland: http://jliljebl.github.io/flowblade/

Shotcut, Kdenlive, Blender (overdrop)

Blender's Video Sequence Editor just has a couple of quirks to get past. It is not deeply mysterious.

Like: the VSE viewer and the Image viewer are similar but distinct; that can be confusing. And OpenGL acceleration on a Scene strip shows a 3D model rendition that is not (in general) the same as the rendered output of the Scene.

If you want to get fancy with the compositor + VSE, again there are just a couple of quirks but the learning curve is merely steep, not long.

Have you tried DaVinci Resolve? Last I checked it had a native Linux version. Unfortunately I don't think the Linux version is available for free (unlike the Windows and Mac versions).

Blender is 3d modeling and animation, vastly divergent from video editing with kdenlive / openshot / etc.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Blender actually contains a non-linear video editor as well.

Blender probably contains a full copy of Blender inside itself too. That program is nuts.

And it's probably one of the nicer options if/when you finally "get it". But the learning curve is tough.

It's the least bad NLE for Linux. The UI is awful, but it's stable and has a reasonable feature set.

I was completely lost when I tried to use it. I wasn't even sure I found the NLE section of the program.

What about Ardour?

I've seen a friend use it for some basic multitrack stuff - basically recording his band live whilst practising. But, it is not a patch on something like Reaper.

You're mistaken, Ardour is comparable to ProTools, Reaper and similar DAW. It's also compatible with VST plugins, etc.

It's the same with RAW image conversion software used for photography. I'd dump OSX on my MBP and never look back if Capture One or DxO Optics ran on Linux.

The open source alternatives are no where near as fast, they lag far behind supporting new cameras, their interfaces are ugly and difficult to use, etc.

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