Lightworks Is Not Coming To Linux Until Late 2011

Earlier this year we reported that the Lightworks video editor was going open-source. This was big news as Lightworks is a professional-grade non-linear video editing application that has received scientific and technical Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. This software has been used for editing films like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Shutter Island. While many have been excited that this application is going open-source, the Linux port will not be available until late 2011.

EditShare, the company that currently owns Lightworks, has updated their web-page with a November 2010 update. Beginning 29 November, the open-source Lightworks will be available for free to those who registered to access this application. There's full capabilities for capture/playback, editing, effects, tools, and other film features. New to the open-source edition of this program is a basic wizard, a new user-interface, on-screen console controls, native support for new formats, a new project browser, and much more.

While these improvements are great, the platform support is currently limited to Microsoft Windows. Support is now available for Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, along with Windows XP 32-bit, but that's it. They are looking to port Lightworks to Linux and OS X still, but they say that won't happen until late 2011.

For now if you're into Linux video editing you'll have to use the recently-released Cinelerra, OpenShot, PiTiVi, and the various other free software projects that have attempted to make a viable non-linear video editor to varying levels of success.