I'll go and see their mac version in september myself. I really don't believe it will be there, as they've been shouting mac, linux and 'open source' since 2010 and it still isn't open source at all.

My experience with the Lightworks paid version: codec support is really not that good: i've had several problems like green screens, sound offset etc. I like to use the free FFmbc-based Eyeframe converter to ingest my avchd material into lightworks. So don't pay for it unless you need their -not so complete- S3D support.

Also be aware that you will not get support with the paid version: you'll find yourself on their forum getting 'this software is used by hollywood editors so shut up' replies to every serious issue you post. If you want real support (which you will need with this software!) you'll have to buy that seperately.

EditShare®, the technology leader in shared media storage and end-to-end tapeless workflow solutions, is pleased to announce the highly anticipated Mac version of Lightworks

Lightworks Linux Public Beta. Following an extremely successful Alpha program, the Lightworks 11.1 Linux Public Beta testing will go live on April 30, 2013, making it the only professional NLE on Linux available to everyone.

Lightworks Windows Release. The full version of the all-new Lightworks for Windows (version 11.1) (currently in Public Beta) will also be released on April 30, 2013.

i worked on a few real world test projects with lightworks alpha on linux to evaluate this program. the port to the linux platform looks brilliant. most of the GUI and the functional features will do their job on this platform quite well. it's a very precise tool that is following totally different paradigms then most other linux NLEs, therefore it's hard to compare them. if you work with lightworks it helps a lot to imagine an old fashioned studio with linear tape recorders automatically controlled by edit decision lists. everything within lightworks seems to follow this schema of player/recorder and precise EDL control. if you accept this relics of some specific historical background, you will get a very powerful tool in your hands. in contrast to most other linux NLEs lightworks is powerful enough to manage even huge projects very efficient.

i don't second vitaliys judgment concerning missing features for a useful practical workflow. well -- the internally used mainconcept codecs are one of the weakest parts of the program, using ffmpeg/ffmbc as an alternative will give you much more more control and better quality in this respect, but it's easy to workaround this shortcomings.

the critics about the 'free/open' nature of the program looks much more problematic to me. i hope, editshare will get this crucial point and set same clear and unmistakable signals to open the program in the promised way very soon, otherwise it will not be a big success on linux. we will see, what they decide...

but in general i think, linux users should not underestimate their tools! if someone would invest a few month of work, most of the outstanding lightworks project managing features for movie editing could be likewise implemented in blender. MLT and the melted server platform has some other very promising qualities, that are hard to find in any commercial software. it doesn't matter so much, if lightworks will roundup this goods. it's just another NLE with a slightly different focus.

Post about open source nature of LW

http://jeff.ecchi.ca/blog/2012/11/10/lightworks-is-not-anywhere-close-to-open-source/

This LW software has a bug that will not go away. Couldn't get it to start even after i turned off my firewall et al.
And then i realised it is a restricted copy, and many have posted on forums on a similar issue. Argh! Forget it!

@goanna --- is it really the case that you can only import clips with the same frame rate as your project (as described in the import tutorial)? With FCPx one can mix and match between framerates and resolutions.

I'm a heavy linux user so I may give it a spin.

there is a new announcement for linux alpha testers on the lightworks homepage:

7/01/2013 :: We will be offering users a second attempt at applying for access to the Linux Alpha Program using www.lwks.com/alphas-linux between 3pm-5pm (UK) on Thursday this week.

This new day, however, your comments as absurd as those of late journalist Mike Carlton who, upon a special mission to the USSR and faced with the Union's most eloquent, English speaking philosophers, asserted that Mikhail Gorbachev was just another Kremlin puppet, Glasnost was a passing phase and that nothing would ever change.

I laughted very loudly here, it just tells about quality of "Union's most eloquent, English speaking philosophers" :-)

Lightworks Pro for Windows (1 year license) is priced very competitively

No such thing as "priced competitively" exist, if it does not support features required by modern workflow even $0 price is too high.

For newcomers, Lightworks for the desktop is relatively new, the NLE having its origins in feature film production.

Current Lead Developer Ron Fearnside developed quite a few of the technologies we take for granted; working at Quantel, an UK company with a pedigree worth acquainting ourselves with.

It may be, @subco , that Ron has done an about-turn and resorted to writing Wine layers. Or, as @Vitaliy_Kiselev says, turned rogue because LightWorks have themselves lost the plot and been remiss in managing Ron and his team.

I totally agree that people and companies cannot rest on their laurels. They have to deserve their reputation afresh with each new day.

This new day, however, your comments as absurd as those of late journalist Richard Carlton who, in a special, live 60 Minutes TV transmission mission from the USSR and faced with the Union's most eloquent, English speaking philosophers, [Carlton] [boorishly] asserted that Mikhail Gorbachev was just another Kremlin puppet, [that] Glasnost was a passing phase and that nothing would ever change.

Maybe Richard was playing the devil's advocate - he'd come without doing his homework and tried an old journo trick. If so, it didn't work - the assembled panel (who'd come prepared to reveal to him the biggest scoop of his career) looked at each other with incredulity and finally bemusement as they reached for their coats.

Carlton returned, none the wiser, to Sydney and obscurity.

[Edited], Richard Carlton, not Mike (sh*t, sorry, Mike!!!)

Lightworks shows that can happen is you leave developers without proper management.

Horrible horror.