What Do You Need In an NLE?

I am constantly on the lookout for useful tools, especially free ones. Unfortunately, as of yet, I haven't found a good
NLE. If you know of one, please let me know. Please.

I have less and less hope for Microsoft and Movie Maker. It's functional, but not great. And Windows 7 doesn't seem to have a high priority on making it any better. At least, not yet.

And as for iMovie... it's horrible. From what an Apple rep told me, it was designed by a guy who wanted to be able to "make a movie in 20 minutes". I had hopes for Apple. In fact, I was worried that I would need to start recommending that kids shell out $600 for a Mac Mini, but my fears are now allayed.

So what does that leave us with? Vegas? I have yet to use it. I wish I had more money to be testing these things... maybe next year I'll have a job that makes me enough extra that I can start playing with things and actually writing up reviews. That'd be cool. But that's also off topic.

What I really want is someone to make a free, cross-platform NLE that supports multiple video and audio tracks. Not one, not just two or three, but at least 10. Preferably more.

I want to be able to drag and drop things around the timeline. And, yes, I want a Timeline, Apple. The latest version of iMovie has no timeline... how are we supposed to accurately edit a movie without a timeline?

Oh, right, I forgot: 20 minute post-production. There's no time for accuracy, pacing, or tweaks.

Give me MiniDV and normal image file type support. If you want to go crazy, add HDV. Then offer a DVD authoring program and a good compression program. But really, I just want multiple video tracks so I can do simple animations with keyframes.

Once you give me that, we can start dreaming. Until you do, I can't really suggest a program for aspiring filmmakers to use without shelling out big bucks.

Help!

~Luke Holzmann
Your Media Production Mentor