KDEnlive sponsorship - ultimate desktop Linux adoption accelerator!

[danboid]

An open letter to Canonical:

On the whole, Linux multimedia is very good now, with one very important exception - video editing, which has long been a weak spot for Linux and this is frequently cited as one of the main reasons people have been unable to adopt Ubuntu as their primary desktop platform; hardware incompatibility being the other but as we all know that is becoming less of an issue as more and more hardware vendors are supporting Linux.

Linux users really only have two serious choices for video editing- cinelerra or KDEnlive. Unfortunately, cinelerra has a complex interface which really requires a dual-display setup and it also has a steep learning curve, which leaves KDEnlive as the only real, usable choice for most users. Whilst KDEnlive has made great progress in the last year, it is still missing many important features (see its Roadmap on the KDEnlive wiki - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Kdenlive/Roadmap ) and unlike other key Linux multimedia apps such as k3b and Ardour it doesn't have any sponsors to assist with and accelerate its development, despite not being as feature complete or mature.

If Canonical would like to see a marked increase in desktop Linux adoption then there is no other strategy I could more highly recommend than sponsoring or helping to develop KDEnlive - it really is the most important, final big missing piece of the desktop linux 'puzzle'. If we can get a great KDEnlive 0.6 released in time for inclusion in Hardy it would do wonders for Ubuntu and desktop Linux overall.

Looking forward to a very exciting 2008, thanks to everyone who supports free software!

Dan

[SunnyRabbiera]

yeh it is a good app, you can tell its a developer app though but its getting there

[dnns123]

I really don't think that the forums is a good place to post that. Most requests go unnoticed in the forums. Email it straight to the cannonical email address if your really determined.

[Prisma]

An open letter to Canonical:

On the whole, Linux multimedia is very good now, with one very important exception - video editing, which has long been a weak spot for Linux and this is frequently cited as one of the main reasons people have been unable to adopt Ubuntu as their primary desktop platform; hardware incompatibility being the other but as we all know that is becoming less of an issue as more and more hardware vendors are supporting Linux.

Linux users really only have two serious choices for video editing- cinelerra or KDEnlive. Unfortunately, cinelerra has a complex interface which really requires a dual-display setup and it also has a steep learning curve, which leaves KDEnlive as the only real, usable choice for most users. Whilst KDEnlive has made great progress in the last year, it is still missing many important features (see its Roadmap on the KDEnlive wiki - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Kdenlive/Roadmap ) and unlike other key Linux multimedia apps such as k3b and Ardour it doesn't have any sponsors to assist with and accelerate its development, despite not being as feature complete or as mature as those programs.

If Canonical would like to see a marked increase in desktop Linux adoption then there is no other strategy I could more highly recommend than sponsoring or helping to develop KDEnlive - it really is the most important, final big missing piece of the desktop linux 'puzzle'. If we can get a great KDEnlive 0.6 released in time for inclusion in Hardy it would do wonders for Ubuntu and desktop Linux overall.

Looking forward to a very exciting 2008, thanks to everyone who supports free software!

Dan

I agree that a good and simple standard video editing tool should be a priority. It will be one more good reason to give Linux a try instead of buying a machine with Windows preloaded.
Also, Amarok and Rhythmbox need to be polished a little bit more, RB need more functionality and Amarok need to redesign its GUI to a more minimalist default GUI.

[mridkash]

+1

[danboid]

I really don't think that the forums is a good place to post that. Most requests go unnoticed in the forums. Email it straight to the cannonical email address if your really determined.

That is indeed what I wanted to do, and will do but I was looking at the various contacts on the canonical 'Contact Us' page and none of them really seemed appropriate. Maybe I should just e-mail Mark (we're on first name terms of course direct?

Who'd be best to contact about this?

[lespaul_rentals]

Amarok need to redesign its GUI to a more minimalist default GUI.

The only people I have ever heard say that are Gnomers. I've always wondered why, but I think it's because of how simple Gnome is. No offense, man, but Gnome always makes me feel like I have no control over my computer...it always makes me feel like I'm on a Mac or Windows and to be honest it even makes me feel a bit stupid. No offense to any Gnome users out there. I know you guys use a very simple desktop manager but some people (myself included) like the way Amarok is set up, no matter how "busy" it is. If the developers of Amarok make it as simple as say, Rhythmbox or another Gnome application, I will be very sad.

[Xbehave]

try and contact them but i dont know what sort of response youll get.
perhaps the more profetional distros would be a good place to ask too:
redhat, novell
they seam to do more application development, ubuntu just seam to tweak and finish a setup, then support it

OT:

Amarok need to redesign its GUI to a more minimalist default GUI.

i think Amarok is perfect by default, i tweak menus abit buts its a kde app, not a gnome one!
edit missed lespaul_rentals, reply which i completly agree with, tbh id like to see it alittle more complex in terms of mouse interaction

[forrestcupp]

KDEnlive is definitely the best app available for basic video editing. But if you need to do anything complex, it is lacking features.

I use Cinelerra. At first I was intimidated by it, mainly because everyone says it's so hard to use. When I actually jumped in and did a project with it, I found out it's really not that hard to use or learn. It is very functional on just one monitor. But they don't even have Cinelerra in the repos.

But I agree that if KDEnlive had good backing, maybe they could add a lot of features to it. If it were full featured, it would definitely be the best. I love it's UI. It needs good chroma keying. It also needs the option to dynamically resize, move and set perspective of overlayed video clips. Without these things, it's not much use to me.

[danboid]

Cinelerra also lacks the all-important ability to export straight to a DVD/VCD (compliant MPEG file) or an .iso, instead you've got to use DeVeDe or winff to convert it to DVD. Thankfully KDEnlive does have this feature!

You've also got to have a good, large, very hi-res monitor if you want to use cinelerra on 1 monitor without going window-management nuts. Cinelerra is still missing from the repos. because of font legalities but one of its biggest failings is that it is inherently developer unfriendly. It uses its own toolkit and the main dev only works by himself, merging the odd patch he gets sent.

I've also written to both Mandriva and Novell making this very suggestion- let's see if anything comes of it!