This is a minefield with so many products on different platforms, so I will try to keep it simple. Choosing video editing software will depend on the operating system you use, I will list the most popular choices suitable for beginners to intermediate users. The software below will cost you nothing to use, otherwise known as Freeware or Open Source. Its great going out and shooting video, but then what do you do with it, you will need help from a program likes the ones below.

Windows Movie Maker

IMPORTANT: You will need a legal copy of Windows XP/Vista to be able to use this software

Movie Maker is the wonderful easy-to-use entry-level video editing app that's included in all versions of Windows XP/Vista... you can be up and running in a couple hours, mixing your still pictures, video clips, music and audio into amazing home movies, and topping them off with a wide assortment of titles, text overlays, and credits. Your movie can go wherever your creativity and imagination takes it.

Windows Movie Maker v2.1 for XP only - Windows Movie Maker 2.1 makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker 2.1, you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using third-party software you can even take movies you've made and turn them into DVDs. You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

Windows Movie Maker v2.6 for Vista Only - Windows Movie Maker gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media. You can also save your movie back to the DV tape in your camera.

A tutorial on using Windows Movie Maker can be found here

http://www.papajohn.org/ - excellent information, tips, Tutorials etc on using Windows Movie Maker

WindowsMovieMakers.NET - for Microsoft Windows Movie Maker 2 Enthusiasts.

Windows Movie Maker is provided free with Windows XP/Vista, although a basic video editor, good results can be achieved for beginners and above.

iMovie for Mac OS X

Comes bundled free with your Mac

iMovie for Mac OS X - Plug in virtually any digital camcorder and iMovie starts importing your video. Don’t have a camcorder? You can still use iMovie: It displays video you captured on your still camera and imported into iPhoto. Import your video and organize it just like your photos, Drag and drop precisely edit with ease. Browse and view your video all in one place, choose titles, transitions, and effects. Make home movies look like Hollywood masterpieces.

iMovie Tutorials from Apple

although another basic video editor, good results can be achieved for beginners and above.

Linux based systems are much harder for beginners to get to grips with regarding multimedia, although they are catching up fast with Windows/Mac based software.

An excellent way to get into Linux based systems is to try one of the many live CD's that are available, or give Ubuntu Studio a go.

Ubuntu Studio for Linux

Ubuntu Studio - is a multimedia editing/creation flavor of Ubuntu. It's built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional. Our aim is to make it more accessible for new users to get into the tools that GNU/Linux has to offer for multimedia creation and production.

Open Video Editor for Linux

Open Video Editor - Open Movie Editor is a free and open source video editing program, designed for basic movie making capabilities. It aims to be powerful enough for the amateur movie artist, yet easy to use.

Kino for Linux

Kino - Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.

You can load multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video/audio, and save it to an edit decision list (SMIL XML format). Most edit and navigation commands are mapped to equivalent vi key commands. Also, Kino can export the composite movie in a number of formats: DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4. Still frame import and export uses gdk-pixbuf, which has support for BMG, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PPM, SVG, Targa, TIFF, and XPM. MP3 requires lame. Ogg Vorbis requires oggenc. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 require mjpegtools or ffmpeg. MPEG-4 requires ffmpeg.

Avidemux for Linux

Avidemux - is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF, using a variety of codecs. Tasks can be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities. Avidemux is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows under the GNU GPL license.

Cinelerra for Linux

Cinelerra - Unleash the 50,000 watt flamethrower of content creation in your UNIX box. Cinelerra does primarily 3 things: capturing, compositing, and editing audio and video with sample level accuracy. It's a movie studio in a box.

OpenShot Video Editor for Linux

OpenShot Video Editor - is an open-source program that creates, modifies, and edits video files. OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCHD. This software is the new kid on the block and may turn out to be the best so far for Linux, not released an offical version yet, Keep an eye on it

This webpage is still work in progress, and will change when I get around to finishing it