Recently we got access to a camera that records reasonable 4k video at 10bit and 12bit color depth. So naturally we now need a way to edit this 4k video. While proprietary software like DaVinci Resolve does have free variants that could be useful, those free variants often come with unfortunate restrictions like “no 4k exports” or “no commercial use” (sometimes with questionable definitions of “commercial”).
Warning: this post will not contain much information about editing at all, just a colorful recollection of all the problems had on the way to a 4k editing setup that works reasonably well. Software is a horrible mess most of the time. This will be quite a rambling. So sit comfortable, grab a soothing object and/or foodstuff of your choice, and prepare to be disappointed.