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Salasaga Fills Flash Creation Hole for Linux

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the flash-still-evil dept.

Linux.com's Bruce Byfield is reporting that Salasaga, the renamed Flame Project, is attempting to fill the functionality gap of Flash creation for Linux in addition to being a cross-platform tool. While it still lacks the spit-shine of more mature apps, it is going a long way to filling yet another hole in Linux software. "Opening Salasaga, you could easily think you are in a slide show program. Individual slides display on the left, and the current slide appears on the bottom right. On the top right is information about the layers on the current side. Menus are logically laid out across the top of the editing window. From the editing menu, you can set the defaults for new projects, including the default display size of finished projects, the preview width, and the default background color. After adjusting these settings, you proceed logically from the right as you develop a project, progressing from Screenshots for importation through Slide and Layer to Export. This progression is so logical that few viewers should have trouble teaching themselves the basics of the software and producing a test project in less than 20 minutes -- and saving it in native .flame format or exporting it to Flash or SVG formats."

34 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Link and Summary by 26199 · · Score: 5, Informative

    On the off-chance someone was going to RTFA, here is the FA, since it doesn't seem to have made it into the story.

    The following line probably tells most people what they want to know:

    Also missing are features that those familiar with Flash Professional or Adobe Captivate might expect, such as drawing tools, a scripting language, and support for sound and video.

    So what does it do? Well, slideshows. Handy, but not hugely exciting.

    1. Re:Link and Summary by 26199 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To be fair, the hype comes from Slashdot, the linux.com article is quite restrained...

    2. Re:Link and Summary by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the only aim was to generate swf files, this was already possible using vnc2swf. If the aim was to produce a replacement for Flash, then it seems to have failed.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    3. Re:Link and Summary by someone300 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Seems that Flex provides a more complete Flash creation tool than this software. What's more, Adobe are supporting it under Linux, and you can pick up an alpha version of Flex Builder based on Eclipse already.

      To me, it seems that this software would be more suited to a plugin for OpenOffice.org Impress.

    4. Re:Link and Summary by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Definitely. I mean it's a cool looking app, but the "slides -> layers -> export" model.. i'm sorry, it just sounds like a terrible idea. Maybe some flash presentations could be done slide-by-slide but most can't, and without actionscripting it's pretty much limited to being nifty but useless.

    5. Re:Link and Summary by anomalous+cohort · · Score: 2, Informative

      Salasaga seems to be about authoring slide shows in SWF format. In which case, it will need to do a better job than the Export function of the Open Office Impress application.

    6. Re:Link and Summary by jambarama · · Score: 2, Informative

      So what does it do? Well, slideshows. Handy, but not hugely exciting
      Not only that, OpenOffice can already export slideshows into .swf files. When .swf support was first added I thought it was so neat I went and created a short animation - flipbook style. As it turns out, OO.org requires you to click, to advance to the next slide - which is the only added feature of salasaga AFAICT.

      From the project homepage

      An Integrated Development Environment for producing eLearning. Imagine a free, easy to use GUI authoring environment that helps you create visually impressive and actually useful learning material. The short term goal for this project is to provide such an environment, and we're well on the way to a first release for doing that. To me, this seems to suggest this is designed as an educational tool, not a linux flash replacement. But it fails to show (at least to me) why it is any better than a traditional powerpoint presentation, and what it does that is so special. The homepage also claims Flash has at least one serious design limitation (from my POV) making it nearly useless for comprehensive eLearning but never discloses _what_ that serious limitation is, or how salasaga addresses it (other than making vague future claim about ajax).
    7. Re:Link and Summary by chromatic · · Score: 3, Informative

      Adobe are supporting [Flex] under Linux...

      If by supporting you mean "have thrown an alpha or two over the wall for 32-bit x86 processors back in December", then yes, Adobe supports Linux with Flex.

      --
      how to invest, a novice's guide
    8. Re:Link and Summary by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Informative

      Trying to do OSS development on the Flash platform is kind of a nightmare in terms of licensing.

      Re Flex, check out the EULA, e.g., "No Modifications, No Reverse Engineering." The swf spec says "a. You may not use the Specification in any way to create or develop a runtime, client, player, executable or other program that reads or renders SWF files." If you look at the list of codecs that are supported for Flash, or that may be supported in the near future, it's a mixture of totally proprietary codecs and others that are not quite as proprietary, but are not totally free and open either: mp3, a modified version of h.263, AAC audio, H.264 video, Nelly Moser. The EULA for the player says you can't modify it or reverse-engineer it, and can't run it on a portable device. As of a year ago, there were also a lot of compatibility and licensing issues with the Version 2 Components.

      If you want to do totally OSS development on the flash platform, you can also do it using mtasc, haxe, and gnash. However, you then have to accept that mtasc supports an old version of actionscript, and haxe isn't the same language. I.e., you can't buy a flash book and expect to get the examples working.

      --
      Find free books.
    9. Re:Link and Summary by X0563511 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People need to learn that anything intending to be a web standard should NOT be proprietary.

      Imagine if javascript, PHP, or html was a proprietary binary blob? You see the issue I'm sure...

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    10. Re:Link and Summary by markdavis · · Score: 2, Informative

      OpenOffice already has the ability to export Impress presentations in Flash :)

    11. Re:Link and Summary by mjbkinx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If by supporting you mean "have thrown an alpha or two over the wall for 32-bit x86 processors back in December", then yes, Adobe supports Linux with Flex.

      Personally, I'm very happy about them releasing alphas. It's already quite usable.
      Also, there's another commercial IDE, the SDK itself is under the MPL, and there are alternative (non-Adobe) tools as well.
      Anyway, I highly recommend haXe, it's a fine language that you can also use to generate JavaScript, with a great type system.

    12. Re:Link and Summary by h4rm0ny · · Score: 2, Interesting


      I'm sure some people can do some nice stuff with this, but what I'd really like to see is decent animated SVG in an open format. Can you imagine what Inkscape would be like with support for animation? Incredible - that's what. If some rich company (Google, Sun) wants to knock FLASH flying and bring about an open standard, that would be the short route to go.

      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  2. URL by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Where the fuck is the URL?

    --
    Support my political activism on Patreon.
    1. Re:URL by jambarama · · Score: 2, Informative

      This probably should've made the post.

  3. The link? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The link is a lie.

  4. can't comment.. by rucs_hack · · Score: 5, Funny

    After all if I did, someone would only mark it as native .flame bait

  5. Track Jumping by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Funny

    being a cross-platform tool That's what we used to call the people who jumped tracks instead of taking the overpass at the train station.
    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  6. Oh, THAT kind of flash by overshoot · · Score: 2, Informative
    At first I thought it meant the light that comes out of 'puters with the magic smoke.

    I never noticed that Linux had a problem in that regard.

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  7. What about a player? by Epistax · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here I am in amd64... can I have an integrated flash player that WORKS please? Gnash is utter crap (arg please don't say contribute, I haven't the time to do anything but work and flame on slashdot). I don't want to make a chroot 32 environment / install every 32 bit library in existence...

    Does anyone in my situation have a suggestion? I've also tried broken firefox add-ons, including: Magic's Video - Downloader, Media Pirate - The Video Downloader, and Video Download. I can watch about 1/3 of youtube videos. 1/3 don't work at all, and 1/3 only show the first frame. I haven't seen one interactive flash that works. Some flash completely freezes up firefox. Maybe I'd have luck with a different browser :P

    1. Re:What about a player? by cortana · · Score: 2, Funny

      Install the i386 port of your distro.

    2. Re:What about a player? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      i am in amd64 too, in your same situation, I think adobe will never release the 64 bit plugin, so just ignore content in this closed, propietary and non-portable technology.

    3. Re:What about a player? by 26199 · · Score: 2, Informative

      No idea, but here's one tip: mplayer will play the videos.

      Visit the youtube page with a broken flash implementation and it may still download the file to your browser's cache. (It does in opera). Drop to command line, launch mplayer ... yeah, okay, it sucks. But there ya go.

    4. Re:What about a player? by Device666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Epistax: "Can I have an integrated flash player that WORKS please? [...] arg please don't say contribute, I haven't the time to do anything but work and flame on slashdot"

      If you don't have the time to contribute, how important is that integrated flash player for you? Contribution doesn't neccesary mean it will cost you time, contributing money (even a small sum) can be a way too. Or you could send Adobe a polite email, asking them to add support for your platform. Adobe is increasingly paying more attention to linux. A friendly reminder of lots of people helps


      Epistax: "Gnash is utter crap"

      There are people on projects like Gnash, GPLFlash player, etc who tried or still trying to solve your problem. It's not easy to build an open source flash player. It takes a lot of effort from people with very busy lifes who make the time to contribute code. If all open source developers had your attitude, we all wouldn't even have something like a amd64 open source distribution. So please don't say open source x or y is utter crap, but you don't have time to contribute.

    5. Re:What about a player? by niteice · · Score: 2, Informative

      Use nspluginwrapper. It takes a little effort to set up but runs Flash and a few other proprietary (32-bit-only) plugins with ease.

      --
      ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
    6. Re:What about a player? by Epistax · · Score: 3, Informative

      Your comments are well taken, but..

      If all open source developers had your attitude, we all wouldn't even have something like a amd64 open source distribution.

      I'm not an open source developer, so that's not a fair comparison. I actually did try to help out in a few before but found the politics to be distasteful. My comment about gnash wasn't fair. Gnash is the best thing I've found for amd64. However, it doesn't deserve the pedestal that I've seen people put it on.

      Again, my apologies to any gnash developers. It's just not usable yet.

    7. Re:What about a player? by Hatta · · Score: 3, Informative

      Restraining the whims of designers is exactly why the internet is so much better without flash. HTML and CSS are plenty to get your message across to people in an organized and easy to read format. The internet is even better without javascript too.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  8. Re:Here is the truth... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The reality is that Linux has little to offer to the inexperienced user.

    Face it, no OS has much to offer to the inexperienced user. The question is, how much does it take to become an experienced user? Or how much does the OS get in your way if you're inexperienced?

    The same novice that is seen disconcerted by the impossibility to do a simple one copy-paste between QT and GTK applications.

    Been doing this for years.

    Go out and ask to the people how they install a program that does NOT have packages for its distribucción

    Simple: Treat the distribution as an OS. If it doesn't have a native package for Ubuntu, then as a novice user, assume it doesn't support Ubuntu.

    Now, I dare you to find a slicker way to install and maintain programs than Synaptic.

    Explain him why in his Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Fedora cannot see many web pages: he must download the Flash and the Java plugin, in order then to install them with complicated commands.

    Oh please:

    apt-get install sun-java6-jre flashplugin-nonfree

    And there's a GUI for that, too, if you need it. I think it prompts you on first boot now.

    Also make him know that he won't be able to listen its MP3, WMA and WMV files.

    Except he can -- again, absurdly simple to enable. First time you click on an MP3, you'll get a prompt that'll guide you through installing the necessary packages.

    You're not even trying, are you?

    Tell to the flaming buyer of a new AMD64 how he can play flash games.

    Worst case? Tell them to install a 32-bit OS. Not as if they'd be worse off than in Windows.

    besides, the drivers don't come in the distributions. ..becuase of the fucking freedom

    Again, only a few clicks away. And once they're installed, they'll actually auto-update, and stay updated.

    Believe it or not, installing XP on this laptop was worse -- tried downloading the drivers from nvidia.com, and they didn't work. The Toshiba site only had Vista drivers. Had to go to an old Toshiba UK site to find any. On Linux? Damned-near plug'n'play.

    The proof of the free software failure is seen also in the professional world...

    And then you go on to list a few apps that you don't like, but which do, indeed, prove that these things exist. Oh, and Maya has a Linux port.

    In the software development industry there's not a single decent RAD tool.

    Rails.

    now prefer the most powerful system for software development: Microsoft Visual Studio.NET.

    Which also can only be used reasonably on a machine with 2 gigs of RAM. May as well use Eclipse.

    Accounting software? In Linux? There's not software in this area.

    For business-level, maybe not. Personal-level, there's Gnucash and KMyMoney.

    If Linux is free (in both senses)...Why the high computers-makers don't preinstall it (just a 1% make that)?

    Dell does.

    He wants to install his webcam without recompiling the kernel.

    Literally plugged a webcam into a vanilla Kubuntu, had it running in Kopete with no tweaking whatsoever.

    And at that point, you descend completely into a pointless rant, that makes me wonder exactly what Linux people you've been hanging out with -- if, indeed, you know anything about Linux at all. You make some good points, but you lose all credibility when you rant about problems that were fixed 2+ years ago, or actually complain about things that Linux does better than Windows.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  9. Re:Which hole is this filling? by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it's not really that it fills one specific hole... If anything it's kind of a double-penetration thing...

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  10. Other Options...? by wasbridge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Salasaga is cool, but I am not totally sure that it fills the Linux community's need for a Flash IDE, though it does do a good job of creating web based interactive learning environments. I do not want to steal the light, but I want to get a word in. I have a more traditional (Open Source GPL) Flash IDE project which is based off of the Open Source Flex SDK. Its in C# .NET and via MonoDevelop, Cairo and GTK+ will port well to linux and OSX. Porting is on my list of TODOs for the next 2 weeks. Check it out at http://dialect.openmodeling.net./

  11. Misread by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Funny

    Am I the only one who read this as Sausage Fills Flash Creation Hole for Linux?

  12. Flash is not essential by sega01 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While Flash is used in so many places, I really don't see it as essential. You can do a lot with SVG's and the existing web standards, and embed video with an open codec. My main problems with it are that it is completely proprietary. I try to run a pure open source system, and consider any boxes of mine that use the proprietary Flash plugin to be compromised (at least, on the level of the user than runs it). I would really like a Flash, Perl, Python, C++, .NET, Ruby, and Basic free world :-).

  13. Re:Here is the truth... by argent · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ever try to install Windows alongside an existing OS?

    I had Windows NT4, FreeBSD, BeOS, and Rhapsody DR1 running on the same PC.

    It's not that bloody hard.

    Hell, I had Windows 2000, FreeBSD, and BSD running on a Toshiba Libretto. That puppy was maxed out with 64M RAM.

    IT'S NOT THAT HARD, except that Microsoft deliberately makes it harder than it needs to be.

    The way I see it, it's good that we have a mostly homogeneous OS market.

    Well, except for Windows, we do. Pretty much everything else is UNIX.

    As for Microsoft, I wouldn't mind them so much being an evil empire if they were a competent evil empire. But it's over 10 years now and they STILL haven't fixed the whole IE / ActiveX security mess.

  14. Is there an FOSS equivalent to Flash? by AP31R0N · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It would be nice to have an open standard that allows people to create animated crap that doesn't require slurping from the adobe teat. Something any browser could run, with, or maybe even without a plugin.

    --
    Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!