Are there any lightweight linux video editors?

ffmpeg? no ui at all there.

# CUT (fast, keyframe-aligned, no re-encode)
ffmpeg -ss 00:01:30 -to 00:02:10 -i input.mp4 -c copy cut.mp4

# CUT (accurate, re-encode)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -ss 00:01:30 -to 00:02:10 -c:v libx264 -c:a aac cut.mp4


# MERGE / CONCATENATE (same codecs, no re-encode)
printf "file 'a.mp4'\nfile 'b.mp4'\n" > list.txt
ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy merged.mp4


# MERGE (different formats, re-encode)
ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v][0:a][1:v][1:a]concat=n=2:v=1:a=1[v][a]" \
-map "[v]" -map "[a]" merged.mp4


# TRANSITION (video crossfade, keep audio from first clip)
ffmpeg -i a.mp4 -i b.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v][1:v]xfade=transition=fade:duration=1:offset=4[v]" \
-map "[v]" -map 0:a transition.mp4


# ADD TEXT (overlay)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
"drawtext=text='Hello world':x=20:y=20:fontsize=32:fontcolor=white" \
-c:a copy text.mp4


# ADD AUDIO TRACK (replace existing audio)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i music.mp3 \
-map 0:v -map 1:a -c:v copy -shortest out.mp4


# ADD AUDIO TRACK (mix with existing audio)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i music.mp3 -filter_complex \
"[0:a][1:a]amix=inputs=2:duration=shortest[a]" \
-map 0:v -map "[a]" out.mp4


# CHANGE SPEED (2x video, drop audio)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "setpts=0.5*PTS" -an fast.mp4


# SCALE / RESIZE
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=1280:720 resized.mp4


# SUBTITLES (burn in)
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf subtitles=subs.srt out.mp4

Kdenlive is a bit intimidating at first but if you take the time to watch a tutorial or 2 and figure out what you can remove from the standard layout it can be quite easy to use and works very well. I don't use 90% of the features but I like that they are available if I ever need them.

Ok, so, here it is: If you just want to cut stuff, without much fanfare, then these four are your best bet:

1. LosslessCut: https://github.com/mifi/lossless-cut possibly what you're looking for for most things, download the .appimage for x86
2. Shutter Encoder It just cuts and exports. https://www.shutterencoder.com/
3. Video Trimmer, get it on flathub. This one is newer.
4. https://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ (the old guard)

If you want to do a tiny bit more stuff, like subtitles and blurring, you MUST use a full video editor, like Shotcut and Kdenlive. These features aren't simple to implement so they're part of a full editing experience.

Others mentioned it but I'll insist on kdenlive.

Yes it's intimidating, so much so I initially started it, closed it and went back to ffmpeg, so the CLI.

What I was lacking wasn't a good UI or UX but rather the principle of video editing. Once you actually learn the basics :

• cuts (each file become a track, each file can be sliced in smaller piece and re-arranged)
• timeline (cuts next to each other or on top of each other, including audio, videos, cards, etc)
• effects (fade in, fade out, etc)
• project management (organizing files, designing cards for titles, etc)

then regardless of which software you use it's nearly the same.

So I would actually invest just an hour to try a tutorial, edit a 1min video, get feedback on it from friends then try again. Honestly video as a medium is not going away anytime soon, in fact arguably platform like TikTok (sadly) made it even more popular. Consequently investing a bit of time today would benefit you for decades to come.

This might be useful: https://ffmpeg.app/

Do you have any reference app that has easy to use interface in your liking?

I believe even OpenShot is the most basic version of video editing. Windows Movie Maker, Clipchamp, Capcut, all are have same basic interfaces.

Are you not making the next Avatar movie? I came here to help because I thought... I believed... Oh, well.

For jobs where you just want to make cuts check out 'Lossless Cut'. It's extremely simple and extremely fast.

avidemux used to be pretty good.

For simple cutting I just use ffmpeg. It can do a few other effects too.

Blender has a video editor as part of its suite. If you are not familiar with video editing software there are a lot of tutorials on YouTube to get you started. Otherwise the building blocks are there and you can build off of your previous knowledge and likely get the results you are looking for.

DaVinci resolve is on a completely different level to shotcut or kdenlive. None of them are totally intuitive, but the required learning on something like Shotcut essentially boils down to understanding that pretty much everything is a video filter, or basic track operation hotkeys (e.g S to split video segment at selected frame, X to delete selected segment).

For your use cases I'd suggest taking another look at either of those and ignoring "advanced" settings wherever possible, it's really not that bad and you're unlikely to find anything on either Linux or windows that is both lightweight & does all that

Writing your mlt script in nano. Doesn't get lighter than this. ;)

everything is an ffmpeg GUI, lightest is just ffmpeg commands and mpv to test :D

They appear daunting, but the simple edits you're talking about aren't very difficult to do. I've used kdenlive for simple things and it's pretty easy to learn. Your may just take a little Google for the first run through.

LosslessCut for simple cutting and concatenating

Openshot is pretty simple. Its like windows media player.