Some software updates are like buses: you wait ages for one, only for another to arrive soon after!

And so it is with OpenShot, the popular open source video editor for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Devs have just issued a new bug fix update for the non-linear video editor that irons out a few wrinkles in the recent (not to mention sizeable) OpenShot 2.5.0 release.

“With faster performance, huge optimizations with effects, and improved UTF-8 character support, OpenShot 2.5.1 is the best version yet, bringing powerful and simple video editing to the open-source world,” writes Jonathan Thomas, lead developer for he MLT-based tool.

Chief among the improvement is better effects performance. A stack of video effects can now take advantage of multi-core processors to deliver faster rendering times and improved real-time previews.

This includes the saturation, hue, blur and wave effects, while there’s an all-new Pixelate effect rewritten from scratch.

Other than that there are a crop of UTF-8 project encoding fixes, better json data handling, and updated documentation.

Keen to try it out? Well, you can. OpenShot 2.5.1 is available to download from the project’s official homepage for all major desktop operating systems.

Linux users can download OpenShot 2.5.1 as a standalone App Image:

Download OpenShot 2.5.1 (64-bit .appimage)

Or add the official OpenShot PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa

Then install the latest version from it:

sudo apt install openshot-qt

Once OpenShot is fully installed you can go ahead and launch the app using your preferred Linux app launcher. While the app is relatively easy to get to grips with if you do get stuck head to YouTube, where lots of OpenShot tutorials are available.