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The first ever survey of OpenShot users has come to an end, and I have all sorts of fun data to share with everyone! If you want to skip the analysis and just download the results, here are the direct links:

I'll admit, a few of the answers surprised me, including the top 2 most requested features. So, lets break down the results, and see what we've learned.

1) What existing features are most used?

As you might expect, the top most used features are "Fade In / Out", followed closely by "Slice / Cut" and "Transitions". This supports the idea of automatically cross-fading clips when they overlap, and generally making it easier to fade clips, right? Also, improving the snapping, anchoring, and moving of transitions would also seem like a good fit, based on the usage of those features.

Knowing which features are the most used should help us focus on which toolbars, buttons, menus, and features to keep close by, and which features to hide in menus / preferences, etc..., in order to keep OpenShot the easiest-to-use video editor on Linux. =)

2) What new features are most requested?

To my surprise, the top 2 most requested features are "DVD Creation" and "Video Conversion". Of course, the next question might be... should OpenShot include the ability to create a DVD? Or is that better suited for a stand-alone application. Or should OpenShot include a suite of video editing applications: video editor / DVD creator / video converter?

As much as I hear people tell me that video effects are not important, and no "real" video needs them, our number 3 top requested feature is "Additional Video Effects". So... it seems clear to me that people really like video effects. =)

The 4th most requested feature is an interesting one, "Video Capture". As more and more video cameras store video files on memory cards, hard drives, and USB mass storage devices, how important is this feature? In 2 years will people still need this feature? Are there existing video capture applications that OpenShot could "better" integrate with? Or does it need to be a built-in feature for OpenShot.

Multiple selections, color correction, and multiple audio volume levels (i.e. audio key-frames) are all really good features, and are at the top of my "personal" list. In general, I would like to have more specialized dialogs for some of the filters, like color correction, with sliders, live previews, etc... Also, I am interested in alternate ways of showing audio wave forms, audio key-frames, etc... Rendering audio wave forms can be slow, and in most cases, not very useful. However, when trying to sync audio and video, seeing the waveforms can save you countless hours. So, I wonder how it would feel to selectively turn on / off waveforms on a clip (as needed). Just a thought.

Also, I really thought the "Photo Slide-show Wizard" feature would be higher on the list, as well as the ability to upload to video sharing sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo. Oh well... the people have spoken.

3) How is OpenShot installed?

This was a useful question, since I spend so much time packaging OpenShot. It looks like most of our installations are from a Repository or PPA. This is great news, as it's the safest way to install OpenShot, and the easiest to update when new versions are available. Only 25 people (out of 946) could not get OpenShot installed at all. However, those 25 people kept us busy with bug reports, questions, forum posts, emails, etc... Looking at our mailing list, sometimes it feels like nobody can get OpenShot installed correctly. But clearly, only a small percentage of users have trouble installing OpenShot.

Thank you for helping us make this survey a success! I would like to continue this tradition between each release. As we plan for our next release, it's nice to know we are working on features that people actually want. =)