Downloads are at the bottom of this page. Linux Snap users: the alpha is in the snap "edge" channel. Linux Flatpak users: you can get a "test" build here and install it alongside the stable 22.12 version.

Alpha

Alpha here means that it is not feature complete, but there are many exciting changes that we want people to try out and provide feedback. If it eats your homework, do not complain. It is just for toying around and testing. There will be a beta version around the end of March or early April to add or complete more features. The final release is planned for the end of April.

Qt 6

Qt is the main UI and app library (separate from the media engine) that Shotcut uses. This is the first major upgrade of it since Shotcut started over 10 years ago with Qt 5! (Some interim upgrades did feel major tho.) It was a lot of work, but as a result:

The Windows version now directly uses Direct3D 11 instead of OpenGL (or OpenGL converted to Direct3D) for drawing portions of the UI: Timeline, Keyframes, Filters, and the video player. This is faster, and we hope it improves compatibility.
The Windows version improves support for fractional display scaling in the system settings (e.g. 125% or 150%).
The macOS version now directly uses Metal (Apple's GPU tech) instead of OpenGL for drawing portions of the UI (see above). It is faster.
The macOS app is now universal: compatible with both Intel and Apple Silicon CPUs in the same app.
Some fixes for commonly reported Linux bugs like some images not rendering, visual controls not showing, and OpenSSL 3 compatibility. This also ought to improve things on Wayland.
There is now an ARM64 build of the Flatpak for Linux (but none of the core developers currently has a Linux/ARM system for testing and support).

Performance Improvements

Besides the performance improvements from Qt 6 above:

Some timeline optimization.
Additional multi-threading in audio/video file reading.

GPU Effects

Settings > GPU Effects is back! We made several big fixes to improve its stability. Decoupling it from the OpenGL used for the UI and video display also helps. This is being made for testing purposes to get feedback before deciding whether to leave it on in the April release. If you think its performance is not so great try it out with Preview Scaling. It works good with that, and that helps. GPU effects' performance improvement mainly comes on systems with weak CPUs, with certain filters like Scale and Position, and when stacking filters and video tracks. It also works best when using only GPU filters.

Searching in Filters on "gpu" shows only/all GPU filters.
All previous limitations are removed and working now: text filters, video scopes, stabilization.
GPU effects is not just about performance but also quality since it does all processing in linear color, which gives optimally colored blending and interpolation.
The Blend Mode video filter and track Properties option is not available because it is not yet implemented.

Motion Tracker Filter

This is currenty just a toy filter with plans to apply the analysis results to other filters in the beta. For now, you can choose a region to track with a visual rectangle control and see that it is working. You can preview the tracking and run analysis to improve playback/export performance. When released, this filter will not do any rendering itself outside of the preview. It is intended to cooperate with many other filters. It is included in the alpha to test out the new build components and offer a sneak peak of this new feature.

Fixes and General Improvements

Less audio crackling when audio source is not 48000 Hz sample rate.
Upgraded Glaxnimate to version 0.5.2, which fixes some bugs and can animate motion along a drawn path.
Stabilize and Normalize: Two Pass on a timeline clip is faster.
The Lens Correction video filter is back.
Added Settings > Language > Hebrew.
Open Other > Text now has a Rich option.
Changed File > Export > Video and its shortcut to be the same as clicking Export > Export File.
Many other smaller things not mentioned here - see Git history.

Drawbacks and Limitations

Settings > Theme is gone due to a bug or limitation in Qt 6 Quick Controls. The Shotcut dark or light theme now strictly follows the system settings. On Linux, that is hit-or-miss depending on the desktop environment and its version (and, sadly, not the AppImage). For many people this will not make a difference. For many others, it might make you want to switch your system to dark mode. I do not expect this situation to change in the near future (2023). Yeah, I am not real happy about it either, but it is what it is - which means all comments, forum posts, and bug reports about this will be ignored, hidden, or closed.
Settings > Player > External Monitor with a system monitor (not Blackmagic peripheral) is not working at this time, but we hope to get it working again.
Export progress no longer shows on the Windows taskbar icon.
The minimum version for Windows is now Windows 10. Older systems can continue to use version 22.12.
The minimum version of our non-Flatpak Linux binaries is now based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which uses glibc 2.31. This is due to modern C++ requirements in dependencies, and bundling libstdc++ can break non-bundled system components. Previously, it was based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, whose support period ends in April, 2023. Older systems can continue to use version 22.12, or maybe the Flatpak will work.