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Submitted by gRRRok on 30 April 2009 - 1:10pm.

To begin with - I use Linux just for fun and experiments and never tried it for video/audio. I can tell you just general impressions, but IMHO - they can be true for your case.

If you work a lot with video/audio under Windows, have a lot of applications (bought) and experience in using them, you will have problems. I think that Linux apps will be different and will have less functionality. You may need it or not - don't know.

The best way is to give it a try - but you should have free time. I can suggest two ways - find some Linux video/audio software. It quite often has windows version - like Audacity (audio) or AvideMux. Take a look and consider if that is enough for your needs. And the second way is to try setup Linux, look if your hardware is working. And try to use the same software in Linux. Just do the same tasks you do everyday.

You may just google for "video editing linux" and see links on first page. As a person who works in this field you may get impression and learn what you can expect.

Don't want to discourage you, anyway. Good luck.

Submitted by juanito2 on 30 April 2009 - 2:48pm.

I don't have too much experience in the video or audio business, but I will relay to you some advice from an acquaintance from http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2009/04/can-we-do-... :

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Linux can barely PLAY video properly, never mind edit it. Even Windows Movie Maker is light-years ahead of Linux video editing. Well, there's is one program that I know of (Cinerella) that tries to be a non-linear editor, but it's bloody awful. (Cinerella is to Premiere what MS Paint is to Photoshop CS4.)

Audacity is a great multi-platform, open-source audio editor. (Somehow they figured out how to not screw it up.) Note I said "multi-platform"; I use it on Windows all the time. You might as well use it on an OS that can do everything else you want, right?

If he really wants to get away from Windows while still being able to do multimedia, he should get a Mac. (Or at least a Hackintosh.) They've always been the platform of choice for professional multimedia productions. (I had a job interview at a local news station once; all their graphic design was done on Mac Pros.)

Switching to Linux to do multimedia is like racing the Daytona 500 in a 24 Hours of LeMons car. Sure it's cheaper than the real thing, but it won't get the job done.
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Now, MY advice is to get some modern linux distro as a VMWare image and play it in the free VMWare Player under Windows ( or some other virtualization software). Then you can install the programs mentioned by the previous comment and compare them side by side (literally) with your current Windows software. If you need help setting up VMWare player or other virtualization software, please ask and we will be more than happy to help you.

Submitted by elkif on 1 May 2009 - 11:15am.

Both MsterPatricko and gRRRok are absolutely correct. I do very light Video work for an ad agency. (extremely light weight), but doing simple things like assembling a DVD, something that would take me 30 seconds to assemble in Premiere Pro can take me an hour. Mind you I have years experience with Premiere and no experience with Linux video options. Thus my comparisons of time are not exactly fair.

I use Linux exclusively for all my work and play until I have to assemble video. Based on how much time I have I may have to reboot into Windows or I will be given the luxury to take the time to figure out how to do it in cinelerra (the closet to Premiere). Then making DVDs with DeVeDe or QDVDAuthor are very painful compared to Encore.

I want to say that I am a borderline zealot when it comes to supporting Linux. However it is really simple in windows and not so much in Linux. I already hear people screaming “VIRTUALISE”, and if you work with video for any length of time you realize that you need the whole computer to render video. Not just a piece of it.

Seriously, setup a dual boot setup and just play with it. You may fall in love or fall in hate. From my experiences one either loves Linux and the freedom associated with it... Or one will just hate it due to just way too much freedom. You truly need to make up your own mind.

Submitted by truthbetold on 24 May 2009 - 1:13am.

Saw the posting and frankly it doesn't matter. So basically you are saying that in order to battle the guy who is the antithesis of everything you stand for, that you can justify lying to this poor sap? Linux is clean and had the ability to do some powerful things, but video editing just isnt' one of them. The only saving grace is that photoshop might be able to run under wine but that's a whole pain in the arse when you can just run it native on windows. Listen guy do try linux but do NOT turn into this guy who will just flat out lie about it's capability in order to win some bs fight on the internet. Video editing + LInux = no job for you.

Submitted by champu123 on 16 July 2009 - 2:35pm.

well i agree primefalcon, i think linux is not that bad in this regard it's just that we have only linuxhaters here..... this bloody **** just directed the people from his blog to here..... but don't worry buddy linux saviours are here.....
Actuallly linux is better than windows in video editing tasks... why? because you have more options there!! You think you will miss adobe suites in linux? no man, visit here: linuxmigrator.blogspot.com.
Now you can actually play most of the softwares coded for windows in linux through wine... and what is the catch? they actually work faster in linux than in the sucking vista...
and i heard somebody saying linux can't even play videos forget about edit!! bull**** man!! what i have felt that my vista could never play HD movies of mkv formats(something like 5gb movies)... maybe my processor was slow... but then ubuntu was amazing..... i was shocked!!
so i hope that must be enough for you linuxhaters to shut up.....

so finally turning to samman34... my suggestion would be that you just partition your drive(better still use wubi) for testing linux if it fits your needs...
it is definitely better than windows as all the tools of windows are now available in linux and also you will get better speed in linux.... so it must be better.... Go for it man!!

Submitted by champu123 on 21 July 2009 - 9:30am.

ok now i thought you'd like to see some examples and justify yourself if linux suites you........
here is a 10 min movie(open) that was made completely using blender(3ds max of linux) and other tools in linux(and only linux). As you'll find its quality is quite good and comparable to pixar(maybe better).
Then somewhere i saw an ad of hp workstation with xeon processor. They were saying that the movie Aliens vs Monsters, made by Dreamworks, was made using hp workstation and an OS Linux. This shows that Linux is something for heavy duty. Big industries go for it. I should agree that tools are not enough here but I just can't agree some guys saying that it works slower. It is actually quite well known that Linux is much faster. And then most of the guys haven't worked in Linux here or they are addicted to windows.
ok so now here is a link where you can find that dreamwork used hp based linux workstation for the movie kungfu panda....

Man this is some inside story that dreamworks has disclosed that they prefer linux stations for their work...... i doubt that maybe other biggies like pixar are doing the same.......