The battle of NLE superiority rages on, a new contender arrives with EditShare's announcement of Lightworks for Mac OS X. Lightworks has a long track record with industry professionals, but this move could potentially open up the software to a much larger market. It is now the only NLE that is compatible across all major operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac). Read on for more info.

This Academy and Emmy award-winning professional-grade editing software, with realtime GPU pipeline architecture that can handle 2K and 4K, has cut hundreds of Hollywood films: Pulp Fiction, The Departed, and Shutter Island to name a few. The fact that the limited version is free and there is a 50% student discount might push not only Mac users, but all platform users to check out what Lightworks is all about.

EditShare's stand at NAB will be demonstrating Lightworks for Mac OS X and holding a Q&A hosted by Scott Hill, Lightworks user and editor of major films such as Bruce Almighty, Zookeeper, and Here Comes the Boom. Hill gives his impression of the release of Lightworks for Mac:

Introducing Lightworks as native software on Mac will be a game-changer in Hollywood. Professionals will once again have a legitimate and powerful option in choosing their editing system, since so many facilities are outfitted with Macs.

Lightworks has been around for over a decade. The limited version is an open source program (yes -- free), and the pro version is $60 for a 1 year license. Until now, Mac users haven't been able to dabble in (or completely embrace) Lightworks, but now we can. Lightworks worldwide product manager, Matt Sandford, said:

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to develop this new version of Lightworks. We’re excited to be at the stage where we’re able to demonstrate it to our community of editors, whom we know are eager to see it in action. Mac users can now enjoy the lightning-fast editing capabilities of Lightworks, currently being enjoyed by Windows users. Very shortly we’ll be able to announce when the Mac Alpha program will begin.

EditShare has three other major announcements regarding its Lightworks editing software:

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.

New Features for Lightworks 11.2 (coming soon)

In addition to the new releases, EditShare is busy developing new additional features for Lightworks users to enjoy when version 11.2 is released in the near future. These include:

Added support for AJA I/O hardware

Support for screen capture using the record panel

An improved import panel: now behaves similarly to bins, mark/park clips before import

Native H.264 MOV playback

Added curve effect to FX color correction effects

Is anyone looking forward to the Mac version of Lightworks? What's your experience working with Lightworks as compared to FCP or Avid?

[via CreativeCow]