Crowd-funded OpenShot 2.0 delivers graphic Linux package It's been nearly two and a half years since the OpenShot video editor released an update. The long-awaited OpenShot 2.0 was beginning to feel like vaporware until a Kickstarter campaign raised more than $45,000 and promised a cross-platform release. The Kickstarter backers got their first look at OpenShot 2.0 beta at the end …
Indeed. Pitivi, on the other hand, is still using GTK+ and GStreamer. Coincidentally, a fundraiser for Pitivi 1.0 is currently being held.
http://wiki.pitivi.org/wiki/Architecture
http://fundraiser.pitivi.org/
I don't actively use either of these, but from a pure technical standpoint, OpenShot will probably develop more quickly (one could argue it already has), whereas Pitivi is taking the scenic route in order to reinvent fewer wheels (rather, they are crafting/refining wheels which can more easily be re-used elsewhere).
One thing iMovie does offer, although very basic, is the concept of library management. I am yet to find the equivalent of Lightroom for video offering both digital asset management and editing. And, no, Lightroom doesn't work as, although it can load videos, when I tried loading my existing video library it simply froze. There's no 4k or anything but it just didn't cope.
Openshot has been my go-to editor for the last few years. Although missing some features and being a bit buggy it had the cleanest interface IMO. As I've progressed and wanted more features (motion tracking, mainly) I've been using KDenlive and lightworks (free) too, but always seem to go back to Openshot for the final edits.
I''ll probably still keep hitting 'save' after every change tho ;-)
It is the crowd funding aspect of this project that has caught my attention. I keep abreast of the popular technology sites, but I haven't heard much of crowd-funded open source projects.
I have been critical (in a supportive, not mocking way I hope) of some open source productivity applications (just as I am of commercial applications). I do this because as a user of software, I want the best and sanest solution for everybody. 'Everybody' means people who are rightly wary of proprietary software, just as it also includes people who are less confident with computers.
I love the ethos of open source. I love the idea that if someone needs a little bit of software, they can write it and make it available for others. And in those cases, I wouldn't knock them for not polishing the user interface. To create larger applications, a team might be required - skilled people giving their time. But usability testing and refinement is time consuming. If crowd-funded open source software is more suitable for 'everybody', that can only be a good thing.
I've just got version 2.0.6 running on MINT by:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openshot-qt
It recommends that you add the frei0r plugin and that's available from the MINT Software Manager. I'm hoping it's a little less complicated than Kdenlive and more suitable for my amateur dabbling.
> "The long-awaited OpenShot 2.0 was beginning to feel like vaporware until a Kickstarter campaign raised more than $45,000 and promised a cross-platform release."
The reason it began to feel like vaporware was BECAUSE of the kickstarter because he set a deadline for releasing the beta but it took another year after before anything was released. It wasn't until but rather because.
> "Given the general instability of other Linux video editors (KDenLive comes to mind), the session restore alone puts OpenShot ahead of competitors."
Kdenlive has always been known as much more stable and reliable than OpenShot. I have no idea where you got the idea that it was more unstable.
Kdenlive has had session restore for quite a while, in fact I used that feature like a month ago.
The article states that being cross-platform is just a convenient nice-to-have, but IMO it's actually a critical feature.
People don't work in isolation. There is often a need for people to be able to pass work around to make changes, etc. If you're using a linux-only application, then either everyone else ALSO has to have linux, or people have to go around converting files back and forth while hoping nothing gets lost in the process. For example, compare how many people use Final Cut Pro (Mac only) vs Premiere (PC and Mac). Premiere crushed FCP in marketshare.
I used OpenShot 1.4.3 last year to edit a couple of videos from a friend's camera, so was pleased to see v2 beta. However, v2 will not open the Project files that v1.4.3 wrote, so for future edits, I'd have to re-import.
In fact, I expect that I won't want to do that, but this is heads-up: don't change versions in the middle of a project.
Edit: The release notes say:
"Projects should be completely portable now, between different versions of OpenShot and on different Operating Systems. This was a key design goal of OpenShot 2.0, and it works really well now."
Doesn't for me, as described above. YMMV.
J.
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