T1B

I have a one hour video taken with a digital vid cam I want to break up into smaller clips. I've never worked with video editors before. What's out there that's decent, and free?

I'm afraid you are out of luck. There might be some small free editors or trial editors that have limited functionality but when it comes to video, nothing is out there that I know of that is making head lines and is free. This article just released recently says the same thing:
http://www.linux.com/articles/60837

At home if you want to be serious about your home videos, you can get some decent editors for less then $100 or a little more if you need the hardware. Pinnacle has some decent products/packages for home editing. Don't expect anything sophisticated, but for simple cuts/edits/mixing/titles/limited special effects it does very well (Best Buy). Pinnacle Studio runs around $100 for just the software. You can download special effects for free although the good add-ons end up costing extra. Pinnacle's home software will also convert formats, including Ipod, PSP and some other portable formats.

There are cheaper products out there, like Best Buy sells Movie Edit Pro for $50 but it probably only does some basic titles and cuts, which may be enough for what you need. It is probably very limited in its file format support as well.

If you are looking for pro stuff and have some good places to download not so legal copies, I'd look for the professional version of the Pinnacle software or even better yet, go for AVID's software. AVID is what production studios/news studios use and if you have a decent laptop/PC it is definitely the way to go. I think it starts around $300 for some of their versions.

Of course if you have access to an Apple, you can start with iLife, which includes iMovie or get your hands on Final Cut Express HD/Pro/etc.

VirtualDubMod

It's free. It's (relatively) easy. I've used it in the past to satisfactory results.

Worth a shot.