Video Editing On Linux: Looking Up

I think it’s a pretty safe bet that just about all of us, that have tried editing video on a Linux desktop, have been… less than fully satisfied.

And, as has been discussed, this is a big challenge. Developing a solid, usable video editor is no simple task. It’s just not something that can be done completely in developer’s spare time (at least not in a reasonable time frame).

Luckily, a rather awesome company in the UK called Collabora is helping things move forward.

Back in November they announced that they were assembling a team to focus on open source multimedia and, specifically, GStreamer and PiTiVi (the video editor).

I thought, “Sure. A great idea. We’ll see where it goes.” and filed it away under the “follow up on this in a few months” category.

Then, about a month and a half ago, there’s this post over on Edward Hervey (who works on PiTiVi)’s blog.

In a nutshell: Collabora hired a gentleman (Brandon Lewis) who worked on PiTiVi for the previous 2 Google Summer of Code’s, they’ve refactored much of the codebase, and have many new (and key) features (including multiple layers, propper trimming, speed improvements and much more).

Then, earlier today, he announces a pre-release version with those changes – complete with instructions on how to grab it from the Ubuntu Jaunty PPA, etc. And word that the final “0.13.1″ release (I know… not a huge fan of that version numbering system… but that doesn’t mean this software is any less awesome) could be available as soon as this next Monday (the 25th).

And it’s looking incredible. You dudes should be proud. And a big thanks to Collabora for helping to make this happen.

This is exactly the kind of thing we need to see right now. And it makes me very optimistic about where things are heading.

Update: - Hi Guys, beside video editing on Linux, if you are looking for a collection of genuinely free video editing software packages then head over to Free Video Editing Software.