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Comment by Tmmrn | Hacker News Reader

> Video editing is one of the few things that Linux really can't do well.

That's one of these bullshit blanket statements. Linux doesn't do video editing because it is an operating system. Its job is to provide a base for applications like video editors to run on. And video editors run no worse on linux than on other operating systems. A few seconds with google brings you a lot of articles about how well video editing works on linux: http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dcp/news/linux-hollywoo...

What you meant to say is that the open source, freeware and consumer level video editors are lacking a bit.

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I think you really need to chill. What I meant to say is that the environment on Linux systems doesn't do video editing that well at the moment. This doesn't mean that the Linux kernel cannot do video editing at all.

Compared to other platforms like Windows and OSX, video editing on Linux platforms at the moment is not on par with them, and this project is awesome because it's trying to solve this issue.

I've been a Linux user for years, I've tried most video (and audio) editing tools on GNU/Linux systems and I can say that the video side is much more lacking compared to the audio side and I would love for it to become more competent and on par with the rest.

If you want to nitpick without even reading the post you're replying to, maybe you should just do it someplace else. Thank you.

> I've tried most video (and audio) editing tools

I would love you to expand on that if you can.

I am currently settled on kdenlive, which is reasonably stable and features non-linear editing with a number of standard effects (I consider things like fading, zooming, speeding, blue screen to be pretty standard), although it has some rough edges, especially around sound editing (which forces me to use Audacity on the side).

I notably use it on a Mac as well; it is clearly superior to iMovie, although it is clearly inferior to Premiere and Final Cut.

However, I haven't tested the competition for a while…

In fairness you said can't and not doesn't, which implies that video editing is not possible on linux.

Professional-grade certainly isn't, at least not until there's enough demand for it, for tools like Vegas and Final Cut to be ported.

I don't know. but I hear about all these projects and my mind immediately starts thinking about OSS pretenders (all missing features) to professional/enterprisey apps. GIMP to Photoshop being the canonical example. Aside from the lack of feature parity and the legendarily bad UI (apparently designed by people who do not edit images regularly), the single biggest problem is lack of support. If I'm doing something like a magazine, and something breaks, I get to keep both pieces aaaaand that's about it.

Am I being overly cynical, here? Honest question. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to many years of FOSS advocates proposing solutions ignorant of professional workflows.

Sorry, you have also missed the point - I'm not defending the gp's point by saying that there is in fact software available currently that you can use to video edit on linux.

I am saying that stating that linux _can't_ do video editing is disingenuous. It demonstrably _can_, because it is an operating system and the capability is there. It _doesn't_ at the moment because no one has written a high-enough quality application to do it yet.

Are we talking about Linux the kernel or Linux the operating system? The kernel can do whatever it's programmed to do, of course - but I think we're splitting hairs here. It would be like me saying OSX can't do mainstream gaming. Sure, it's an OS, it'll do whatever it's told to do, but the games library available is downright abysmal.

Everyone knows what's meant here - if you work in an audio/video/graphics production shop, Linux is not a viable choice.

People very often use Linux as shorthand for Linux distribution... which has more to it than the Linux kernel.

And they kind of need to be reminded what Linux is..

If people start clamoring Linus to descend from heavens and bring us video editing, it's just a silly as what grandparent referred to.

I see this might be viewed as pedantic, but Linux is not a distro you used.

Additionally Linux does have Blender with support for video editing, which from what I've heard was used to make Sintel and other movies.

Blender is a 3D computer graphics, and video editing is just one of its many features, its hard to learn Blender just to edit a video. A video editing software should be easier to use and have more features.

I agree that blender is not the most straightforward bit of software, however I don't find it has a lack of features.

Blender makes a reasonable video editor if you set it up right - http://processdiary.com/video-editing-in-blender-introductio...

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