Repository

https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt

Introduction

I believe that, with this series, I am contributing, even if ever so slightly, to create discussions around Openshot. Sadly, their forum is down, and that was a great place for people to meet and talk about Openshot.

Forums on open source projects are important for people to get help and learn about the program. Forums have great content and are part of the story of the project. You can see how it evolved and how to views of users changed through time. Without the forum, I think it is harder for Openshot users to meet each other to talk and exchange experiences and knowledge.

Picture of Openshot's forum (sadly):

However, as described in the last post, posting on social media, and on the internet in general, about the project is a great way to get people together.

What is Openshot

In case you have, for whatever reason, landed on this post and is not following the series, first thing, at the end of the post you can find the backlinks for all the posts of the series! Secondly, Openshot a free and open source video editor.

Though it is free, it competes for a neck to neck with the top paid software. It is powerful enough for most needs of most people, personally, I have never needed functionality or tool that is not already on the program. Also, if you happen to need an additional tool or something to change your workflow, for it being open source, chances are there is an add-on out there that might help you on that!

Openshot also has a great performance, opens in less than 2 seconds, and I, personally, have never had playback slowdowns because the preview resolution is compressed.

Also, if you have to work on and render multiple projects in a short period of time, Openshot has an app on the Amazon AWS store that allows you to use their (paid) server to render for you, so you save time.

Discussions generated

With the forum down, I believe I have helped to "light" a spark of discussion around it outside the centralized forum that was once available, and I hope that becomes available again in the future.

Here are a few people that, in this series, got interested enough to comment and discuss briefly the project, and I am really proud to have sparked those discussions. Even brief and small contributions count.

@casberp is a friend from a Brazilian/Portuguese Steem community on Telegram, he said that Openshot, for being free and working on any operating system, convinced him to "give it a try":

Also, @shaidon gave a nice contribution to the discussion. This is a side that I didn't think very much before. My arguments for Openshot were mostly "it is easier, so beginners would like it", but his point of view is that "it is not that I can't use advanced programs, but I just don't want to fight against it to use it". He has got a very good point!

How and why I used it

I am trying to be unbiased here, so I think it is fair to say that Openshot is not, nowadays, my main video editor. Not because it is not good enough, but simply because I prefer an interface that looks more "professional", even if that means that the program is less intuitive or a bit harder to understand how to do things.

That out of the way, Openshot was my first video editor on Linux. When I switched from Window store Linux all the other video editors I knew how to use was available, because none of the big paid editors have Linux support.

Of course, there are "hacks" to make Windows programs run on Linux, but I am very glad that I didn't do that. Firstly, I am glad that I didn't do that because the performance can be heavily reduced by using those programs. Also, if I haven't searched for a free and open source Linux alternative, I would be paying for that software until today!

Now that I have seen that free and open source programs can be as good (I dare to say better in some aspects) that the paid ones, I see absolutely no reason or justification to pay for traditional software. Openshot can do anything I would probably ever want to do, and if it doesn't there is probably an add-on to make it do that.

So, I have started using Openshot not because I wanted to, but because I had to. And lucky me for having to! This program has saved me, literally, hundreds of dollars.

Now, if I ever go back to Windows on my main computer, that is ok, because I can download the open source programs there and edit just like I did on Linux, as those programs are multi-platform and work on any modern desktop operating system!

Not perfect

Of course, no software is perfect. Bugs are inherent to big projects. And the workflow of a software might not fit everyone. But before I tell you what, in my opinion, I need you to understand that this is a completely free software.

There are not even ads on their website. There is no "paid extra feature", there is no paid version. It is completely free and open source. So, of course, it is expected that paid software can have a few extra perks. But in my view, after weighing the advantages and disadvantages, Openshot is a great cost-benefit. None of the "issues" I am going to describe is a deal breaker, in any possible way. And I go as far as to say that, if Openshot was a paid software, it would also be worth a couple hundred dollars, thankfully there are people that build great things without thinking about money. So, Openshot is that good indeed!

That said, it is not perfect. The first thing I don't like about it and is the reason why it is not my main editor anymore is that the interface is too "friendly". If we have the option on the native version of the program to make the interface look more "professional", the program would be much better, and possibly would still be my main video editor. Of course, style depends on the taste of the person, probably beginners would love this interface. Or, how our friend @shaidon said in another post, people that think "why am I fighting this program just to do a basic task?". All features of Openshot are "in your face", so, though it does not look professional, I understand the thinking behind it.

No option to make a proxy file. On Kdenlive there is an option to create a proxy file for the video you are editing.

Though, to me, editing on Openshot has always felt fast enough. Probably for people with weaker and older computers might miss such a feature. By using a smaller and lower resolution and already deployed "proxy" video, you can edit your timeline without taking a performance hit, and when exporting the program would apply the effects and changes to the original video file.

Again, the point above is not a deal breaker by any means, but some people might notice, I have noticed but that never bothered me.

It does not support GPU rendering. Now, if the issues above were not deal breakers, this one might be for some people, mainly advanced users. Having to render everything using your CPU is not good and might be much slower depending on the specifications of your computer.

According to a relatively recent issue discussion on their Github, a developer is currently working on an update. But as far as I could understand from that issue, they are, first, working to make AMD graphics cards compatible with Openshot, and then Nvidia, second, they want, first, to make them work on Linux, and for now I couldn't find when can they deploy this feature for other platforms.

Personally, I don't care, my CPU is fast enough so that I have never had to worry about it while editing videos on Openshot, but people with slow CPUs and fast GPUs should probably test it first (it is free after all) to see how it works for them. If you were paying for an editor and decide to use Openshot, it might be a good idea to use Amazon servers to render for you if you have too many projects to render and you are already saving money by using Openshot.

Just do it

The take away from this series is, there is no reason why not to try, this, and any other Open source project. It is free, and for many people, it can fit anything they would ever need. And that is including me.

The program works on any operating system and has a similar, friendly and intuitive interface. You don't have to do like me and "throw away" all the old software you are used to. Just download it, give it a try, edit one or a few projects.

And most importantly, if you try it, I would like very very much to hear your feedback. How was your experience with it, will you continue using it?

Resources

Openshot main website
https://www.openshot.org/

Download page
https://www.openshot.org/download/

Use guide
https://www.openshot.org/static/files/user-guide/index.html

Series backlinks

• Openshot Series - Get Involved With(Part 7)
• Openshot Series - An Outlook On Performance And Speed(Part 6)
• Openshot Series - It Gives You The Freedom To Fail, And That Is Awesome(Part 5)
• Openshot Series - For Professionals: Time Is Money(Part 4)
• Openshot Series - The Alternatives, Paid And Open Source Competitors(Part 3)
• Openshot Series - First Person Workflow (Part 2)
• Openshot Series - Introduction To Openshot Video Editor And My Experience (Part 1)

Beneficiaries

This post has as beneficiaries

• @utopian.pay with 5%
• @steempeak with 1%

using the SteemPeak beneficiary tool