OStatic

I've been doing some thinking since writing about kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman's statement that Linux supports more devices than any other operating system. Readers made some good comments, and after some time spent wrestling with my (yes, supported) webcam, I can venture an additional suggestion as to why it doesn't always seem that way, beyond Kroah-Hartman's theory of a non-supported device becoming personal.

In the case of my webcam, and in the case of one commenter, it seems the problem isn't necessarily the device driver. At lower levels, the drivers work. It's the layers of programming, interaction, and demand piled on the driver that makes the device feel broken. It is difficult to tell for sure, though, exactly what is causing that break.

A common lament from home videographers is that Linux lacks video editors. It's not exactly true. There's Kino, which edits video and acts as a frontend to dvgrab. Jahshaka edits videos, and uses openGL to add special effects (though many say Jahshaka's strength is its user interface). Cinelerra is a professional grade editor, and while someone working with video regularly might find this is the only option, those needing simple edits and common effects will find it overkill.

There's another alternative for those needing a basic video editor. Open Movie Editor seems plain compared to Kino, but works with more file formats (with fewer hassles). It has a Jahshaka-like interface, without its occasional installation quirks.

It wasn't that long ago that it was impossible to find good, free open source tools for working with and viewing video. Now that video runs rampant on the web, though, there are a whole lot of applications worth getting, even if you're currently happy with your video and encoding tools. Here are eight good applications to try.

Web Worker Daily has a hands-on look at this week's new version 1.1 of the open source Flock browser, based on Mozilla's architecture.ﾠ

Wikia, parent of Wikipedia, has partnered with open source collaborative web media provider Kaltura to offer collaborative video for Wikiaﾒs communities. You can check out sample videos.

ITWire has an interesting multi-part prescription for how to launch and drive a successful open source project.ﾗITWire

Whether you do some blogging, operate an e-commerce site, or simply have moving pictures in the back of your mind to start working with, web-based video and animation should probably be on your radar. Many marketing departments are setting up their own video and animation studios for everything from product demonstrations to webinars, and an increasing number of companies such as Brightcove are helping to deliver and syndicate video on the web.

In keeping with Sam's recent post about video editing tools, let's talk a little about encoding your videos.

Under a new partnership unveiled today, Kaltura, maker of embeddable collaborative video webware, will bring video to the Wikimedia family of sites. The beta program, which is being dubbed an open, collaborative video experiment, will allow users to add and remix rich media via an embeddable player on wiki pages.

Whether you do some blogging, operate an e-commerce site, or simply have moving pictures in the back of your mind to work with, web-based video and animation should probably be on your radar.