Free OS X screencasting (with VNC)

You can use vnc2swf and a VNC server on OS X (any OS really, but these instructions are for OS X) to easily and quickly make your own screencasts. There is a bit of preparation involved, but nothing strange. These are the steps you have to follow (on OS X 10.4.11, Tiger):

Install Xcode Tools, Apple X11 and MacPorts

https://trac.macports.org/wiki/InstallingMacPorts

I used /opt/local/ as my MacPorts base directory.

Install Python and PyGame:

sudo port install python25 py25-tkinter py25-zlib python_select
sudo python_select python25
sudo port install py25-game

Installing PyGame might error out (http://trac.macports.org/ticket/15943), but it’s ok, do the following:

cd /opt/local/var/macports/build/ \
_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_ \
release_ports_python_py25-game/work/pygame-1.8.0release/

(* that's one long directory)

LOCALBASE=/opt/local/ sudo /opt/local/bin/python2.5 config.py
sudo port install py25-game

Get OSXVNC (aka Vine server):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/
Open the downloaded disk image and drag Vine Server to your Applications folder.

Get pyvnc2swf:

http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/
http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/pyvnc2swf.html

tar zxvf pyvnc2swf-0.9.3.tar.gz
cd pyvnc2swf-0.9.3
cd pyvnc2swf/

Now you need to start everything and get ready to record…

Open Applications > Utilities > X11
Open Applications > Vine Server
Run python vnc2swf.py in your terminal

Sample Screencast