State of Kdenlive

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment about Kdenlive

  • Many users say Kdenlive has become their main or preferred editor, especially for hobbyist and semi-serious work, often paired with OBS and Audacity/Tenacity.
  • Others report giving up on it due to crashes, confusing UX, or past project corruption; some say they’ll only switch from commercial tools once stability is fully trustworthy.
  • Several people note significant improvement over the last few years, with some saying it has been stable for them recently.

Stability, data loss, and project safety

  • Repeated reports of crashes, slowdowns on large projects, and in some cases corrupted project files and backups.
  • Counterclaims from users who’ve never seen crashes, or find it more reliable than some commercial tools.
  • Debate over whether developers don’t care vs. are actively fixing crash bugs; mention that complex C++ media software is inherently fragile and even major commercial NLEs crash.
  • Some recommend frequent saving, using project recovery, and preferring AppImage/Flatpak over distro builds to avoid dependency issues.

Features, UX, and missing capabilities

  • Praised as a “sweet spot” between simplistic editors (e.g., iMovie) and heavyweight tools (e.g., Resolve), with rich features but comparatively approachable UX.
  • Complaints about:
    • Changing framerate breaking timing; acknowledged as a hard problem also in commercial NLEs.
    • Weak title/caption workflow and clunky title editor.
    • Poor experience for 2x playback while editing (awkward controls, low-quality audio at speed).
    • Lack of HDR support; noted as being on the roadmap.
  • Some find the UI dated or unintuitive; others say a few days with tutorials is enough to feel productive.

Performance and technical aspects

  • Reports of performance regressions on timelines with many clips; one user locally optimized O(n) behaviors but hesitates to upstream AI-generated patches.
  • Suggestions: open detailed bug reports with patches, draft PRs, or high-level writeups even if code isn’t merge-ready.

KDE, Qt, and ecosystem context

  • Kdenlive is part of KDE. Multiple comments discuss KDE’s relationship with Qt and the KDE Free Qt Foundation; relationship is described as currently healthy.
  • Mixed views on KDE vs GNOME: KDE seen as more configurable and feature-rich, GNOME as more polished but opinionated; Fedora and Arch-based distros often recommended for good KDE experiences.
  • Broader discussion on FOSS “competition”: some reject the idea, others note real competition for contributor time despite shared goals.