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May I tag on related quick question?
I have many Gopro clips I'd like to make into a short film.
Suggestions for cheap easy free software and Ram/memory required on computer.
I'm still running Windows XP.
The older the PC the more challenging it will be to video edit especially with HD recordings. But it is possible.
I refused to buy in to the Bill Gates empire when XP support was dropped. I have a couple of older dual core AMD Athlon PCs from XP days both chugging along nicely with 2gb ram on one and 4gb on the other.
As for free open source video software try openshot.org
If you were looking for good powerful and free alternative to photoshop, try gimp.org
Both are multi platform and work on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.
To improve speed on an older PC you can ditch Windows for something more efficient and more powerful. Also open source and free. Linuxmint.com will allow you to download a friendly version of Linux that is intuitive for windows users to get to grips with without much of a learning curve. Because it is often touted as a way to bring life back into hardware that cannot cope with windows any longer. It is maintained so you have current web browser support and is preloaded with most software the average user will need including LibreOffice (Microsoft office alternative) and Firefox browsers as well as other goodies when you install the operating system. Some windows software can run on it using in built Windows emulation program Wine.
Download Linux Mint MATE version for older hardware. It has less graphic special effects (like solid rather than transparency on windows) but otherwise runs same library of software.
You can boot live version to try from USB stick or burn a DVD to boot from to make sure your PC works with Mint. Live version is slower, but you can see it all works. The install option will allow you to create dual boot with windows if you want. You then choose on startup which to open. The hard disk installed version will run much faster than usb or dvd live version.
Other than speed improvements through more efficient programming of operating system you’ll also find that Linux runs like a Thorn on Marathon tyres. No more blue screen ‘flat tyres’. My home PCs crash so rarely under Linux I cannot even remember the last time they did crash.
A bit off topic, but consider Linux the computer equivalent of Rohloff. Unique, cleverly engineered and simply does the same job better. Once you switch and get used to it, you won’t want to switch back.
