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Let it be known upfront that when it comes to video editing applications, most people think of the Mac first, as it has some of the most intuitive editing applications out there.

While the Mac does provide great applications such as iMovie at almost no cost, other apps for this platform do cost plenty. So unless you have the budget of a small independent film being supported by third-party contributors, going with the Mac for the most powerful software might not always be a viable plan.

But what about those of us on Linux? There's a persistent belief with this platform that there's really nothing available that can create a usable experience for newer video editors, not to mention seasoned professionals. Understanding this perception, I'll show you that this is not entirely true.

In fact, I myself have done a fair share of editing with my Linux boxes over the years, with varying degrees of success. This article will highlight the best and worst applications, based on my own personal use -- NOT just the features provided.

Open Source Movie Editor

Tons of potential here. For beginners, this is really everything people have been wanting for when it comes to basic editing, despite the lackluster UI.

However, based on my own experiences with this editor -- as of version 0.0.20080102 -- I found that I was not able to add anything, as it seems to be looking for Quicktime files, which may mean there is some media support missing on my Ubuntu install. After trying an episode of another program in Ogg Theora, it soon became clear that this was not an application I had time to deal with. Great for future potential, but clearly it is using file formats that I am not. Moving on …

Kino

Certainly not the most glamorous video editor in the world, but I will say this -- it works and works as advertised. A perfect complement for the GNOME desktop user, Kino does just about anything the casual movie maker could possibly want.

From grabbing video off of a capture card (sudo kino helps here, i.e. running Kino as root), to providing a place to do quick and immediate editing without a lot of time spent waiting for the application to crash. Kino is THE best application for simple editing in Linux, as far as I am concerned.

Kino also gives its users immediate access to simple special affects from audio and video tweaks, to audio and video transitions. For most users doing general video editing, once you get past the strange UI, Kino blows the doors off of other basic editors. It brings video off the DV cam into a place where it can be rendered into whatever you might need.

Cinelerra CV

Not a quick in, quick out solution for basic editing, I would note, however, that in a modern install of desktop Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, SuSE, etc) Cinelerra CV is one of the most power editors available on the Linux platform. Despite its rather steep learning curve at times, this application can do stuff that is only rivaled by software on Windows or OS X that costs fairly big bucks. But again, you will need to spend some time reading and studying as to avoid headaches learning to do stuff like this.

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