Any good alternative to Sony Vegas?

Yeah... I need to edit some videos, but Sony Vegas doesn't like working with .avi files. I don't want to convert the files (they're 1.5GB+ each, so it takes like an hour each file), but I can't use Vegas because of it.

Any alternative that can edit videos decently? I basically just need trimming and cutting.

I use Adobe Premiere and After Effects CS5. You know where to look if you need them.

edit: make sure your computer can handle heavy video rendering as well.

I have the 64-bit version of vegas, and it originally had problems reading AVI files.

I followed these instructions, and now it can read them just fine (This only fixes issues of the 64-bit version)

Yeah, I did that too, but all it did was let me read them. Still can't use them or anything.

Do you guys know a simpler program than Vegas?

Well, there's Windows Live Movie Maker. And iMovie. In all honesty, you'll just have to suck it up and try to learn how to use a "real" timeline-based editor. Even the stripped-down consumer editors, like Vegas Movie Studio or Adobe Premiere Elements, are essentially the same program as their bigger brothers; they just lack some features that only pros would need.

I think virtualdub has the capability you seek, trimming, cutting, and without conversion. You could also try avidemux if that doesn't work. Both programs are free.