Video Editors on Ubuntu, FLOSS Alternatives to Premiere and Movie Maker

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This is for multimedia and video editing people who work with Ubuntu and seeking for free libre open source software alternatives to Adobe Premiere or Windows Movie Maker alike. In order to write this overview article, we installed all programs on Ubuntu 22.04 to show you what you can do with them. We use Mandalika and Bunaken from Wonderful Indonesia as video materials. Happy editing! 

 

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About This Article

This article is part of Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) education material in which we want to spread around the world. Under the topic of video editing, we want to present to Ubuntu users the alternatives to the following proprietary software (also known as nonfree software, closed source):

• Adobe Premiere
• Windows Movie Maker
  
• Lightworks
• Filmora
• Sony Vegas Studio
• Pinnacle Studio
• Ulead Studio
• and similar software.

 

Cinelerra

In our opinion, Cinelerra is the best, professional and oldest FLOSS video editor for GNU/Linux initially developed in 1990's. If you want to do serious projects close to Premiere or Vegas Studio, we recommend Cinelerra. Cinelerra is older than Kdenlive and even Blender, has perhaps the most complete features and greatest stability, but unfortunately it is less known and still not yet available in Ubuntu up to today.  We hope this helps spread words about Cinelerra to more people!

Name: Cinelerra-GG

Description: Cinelerra GG Infinity is a free and open source video editing software for Linux.

Website: cinelerra-gg.org

Size: 150MB

Available on repository: no

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | User Manual

How to install: cinelerra-gg.org/downloads

 

Blender 3D 

Blender is well-known as 3D animation software, an alternative to 3D Studio Max, then as 3D Computer Aided Design software, an alternative to AutoCAD, but unfortunately many people aren't aware that Blender is also a video editor as well as compositor, can be considered a free alternative to both Premiere and AfterEffects. Blender is the best example of successful libre software that was previously proprietary software (we hope all proprietary software to follow it). However, to enable video editor (Blender v3.0+), click plus button (+) on right end of the top toolbar > select Video Editing > Video Editing.

Name: Blender

Website: blender.org

Size: 150MB 

Available in repository: yes

How to install: $ sudo apt-get install blender 

Beginner's guide: Video Editing | Compositing

OpenShot 

OpenShot, in our opinion, is the alternative to Movie Maker, considering its simplicity in user interface but richness in features. You will find the appearance also similar to Ulead or Pinnacle Studio. We believe it is truly for beginners, as well as the one suitable for students and teachers at schools.

Name: OpenShot 

Description: Award-winning open-source video editing software (from its slogan).

Website: openshot.org

Size: 250MB

Available in repository: yes

How to install: for Ubuntu version < 22.04 $ sudo apt-get install openshot-qt | for Ubuntu version >=22.04 OpenShot Daily PPA

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | User Manual

 

Kdenlive 

Kdenlive is the most popular video editor on free software world. With a solid KDE Community as its background, it is actively developed, well documented, equipped with a lot of features, effects and flexible user interface you will find similar to Filmora, Premiere, or Vegas Studio.

Name: Kdenlive

Description: Free and Open Source Video Editor (from its slogan)

Website: kdenlive.org

Size: 130MB

Available in repository: yes

How to install: $ sudo apt-get install kdenlive

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | User Manual

 

Shotcut

Not to be confused with shortcut. 

Shotcut is a new player in free software world specifically in video editing field. It's a non-linear, Adobe-like video editor as well as compositor with a lot of features, including 4K support, with many filters and effects. Technically based on Media Loving Tool, the same technology as Kdenlive and Flowblade, Shotcut is developed by the developer of MLT itself, recommended by them and seems very powerful today.

Name: Shotcut 

Description: Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor. (from its slogan)

Website: shotcut.org

Size: 50MB

Available in repository: yes

How to install: $ sudo apt-get install shotcut 

Beginner's Gude: Video Tutorials | User Manual  

 

Flowblade

Flowblade is another potentially powerful video editor that is MLT-based FFMPEG-powered (similar to Kdenlive and Shotcut) on Ubuntu. It supports 146 formats, 78 video codecs and 58 audio codecs. Among the interesting features is G'MIC, the advanced image filtering tool well-known to GIMP users, is integrated in Flowblade. Unfortunately, it is also slow in development (programmers are welcome!) and still foreign to many. We hope this article helps introduce it to more people.

Name: Flowblade 

Description: Free & Libre Video Editor (from its slogan).

Website: jliljebl.github.io/flowblade

Size: 90MB  

Available in repository: yes

How to install: $ sudo apt-get install flowblade

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | Compositing | User Manual

 

Pitivi

Pitivi is GNOME video editor, in similar sense to Kdenlive to KDE. Pitivi is simple, Adobe-like, easy to use tool that can be another candidate as Movie Maker alternative other than OpenShot. However, unfortunately Pitivi is slow in development (programmers are invited to join!).

 

Name: Pitivi 

Description: Pitivi is a Free video edito
r with a beautiful and intuitive user interface, a clean codebase and a fantastic community. (from its slogan)

Website: https://pitivi.org

Size: 75MB 

Available in repository: yes

How to install: $ sudo apt-get install pitivi

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | User Manual 

 

Avidemux

A very simple video editor for simple purposes and as another alternative to Movie Maker. Unlike the others, it does not have timelines, but instead features Append if you want to join two videos or more.

Name: Avidemux 

Website: avidemux.org

Size: 40MB

Available in repository: no

How to install: Download AppImage

Beginner's guide: Video Tutorial | User Manual 

 

Final Thoughts

That's all for now. To sum everything up, we recommend you to pick Cinelerra if you want a pro solution, or pick OpenShot if you just want basic video editing. If you know a stable, Free Libre and Open Source video editor other than mentioned above, please get in touch via comment box below. We hope this helps everyone. See you next time.

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This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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