📣 WinBox 4 is here 📣

[Amm0]

Agree the login screen can be improved. At least part of that is already on the list:

Known issues to be addressed :

• should be some vertical split control between the login/password on left and the neighbors

[mszru]

Please also consider changing combo-box with “Saved”/“Neighbors”/“RoMON Neighbors” on the login screen to tabs.

Regarding login screen, I’d like to suggest something like that. Similar to how panels are done in the Dude.
It would be possible to create as many panels as required and there will be no need to switch. I think it’s even better than just returning tabs.

With the new solution allowing multiple tabs be selected at the same time (Shift+Click), the tables may be places one above the other

[teslasystems]

With the new solution allowing multiple tabs be selected at the same time (Shift+Click), the tables may be places one above the other

But this won’t allow to choose the same tab multiple times. My suggestion is much more flexible and allows not only to choose different tabs, but also choose the same tab on multiple panels and adjust their sizes and positions as required. As on example above, you can show different saved groups (Home and Work routers) or whatever you like simultaneously without any need to switch.

[Paternot]

Interesting. I tried it with Firefox, Chromium and Opera and none of them do this. I use the Xfce window manager so it may be that the window manager influences this, but I doubt it. I wonder how much of such things (tooltips) is done by the window manager, if anything, and how much is done by the application itself. Maybe there is the option for both methods?

The example working was with Waterfox - for all intents and purposes, Firefox. The example with problems was WInbox. I’m using KDE, so that really may influence things. And it would open a whole new can of worms: how much variation would the several window managers on Linux create? There must be SOME tag or whatever that we could use to make the behavior (a little more) predictable.

[pe1chl]

I think that is one of the reasons why so many software makers do not release versions for Linux.
You just do not know in what environment your application is going to run. There are many different distributions, there are different window managers, way less standardization of fonts, etc etc.
It is beneficial to have so much flexibility, but it also makes end-user support and handling of bugs more difficult.

[Paternot]

I think that is one of the reasons why so many software makers do not release versions for Linux.
You just do not know in what environment your application is going to run.

But we don’t know if we are right on this one: it may very well be a different thing. Because the browser part of the hints always worked for me - en Linux. It’s the Winbox 4 part of the hints that doesn’t work. For all we know, they may even have used the wrong tag this time.

For example: I know there are standard ways to put/read things to/from the clipboard. So CTRL+C and CTRL+V can be made to work the same, across all window managers - even between one Gnome application and KDE. There are other examples, but this one I remember.

With a little bit of luck is just a wrong TAG, a bad parameter and that’s it.

[spippan]

…still no “Open in new window”

[w0lt]

Mikrotik, please simply duplicate the exact functionality in Mac Inbox 4 that you currently have in Windows Inbox 3.42..
Do that first, before anything else…Then go from there.. Simple..

[teslasystems]

Mikrotik, please simply duplicate the exact functionality in Mac Inbox 4 that you currently have in Windows Inbox 3.42..
Do that first, before anything else…Then go from there.. Simple..

Yes, it was suggested many times and I also support this. But it seems they don’t care. They are just making some improvements of initially shitty interface and they are doing them VERY slowly. In such situation it would probably better to make skins support and create a few skins including WinBox 3 style, that would exactly repeat WinBox 3 interface. And of course give us a skin editor to adjust everything. With current style and layout I will never use this product on a daily basis.

[Cha0s]

Mikrotik, please simply duplicate the exact functionality in Mac Inbox 4 that you currently have in Windows Inbox 3.42..
Do that first, before anything else…Then go from there.. Simple..

Yes, it was suggested many times and I also support this. But it seems they don’t care. They are just making some improvements of initially shitty interface and they are doing them VERY slowly. In such situation it would probably better to make skins support and create a few skins including WinBox 3 style, that would exactly repeat WinBox 3 interface. And of course give us a skin editor to adjust everything. With current style and layout I will never use this product on a daily basis.

Hear hear!

[CGGXANNX]

With beta23 the workaround with the font substitution on Windows no longer works :(. Now the UI is either huge again at 100%, wasting space, or texts become blurry/not aligned to pixel grid when using the 92% scaling option (which gives the “good enough” density).

I want to be able to use Segoe UI again at 100%, please.

Adding a qt.conf file to the executable’s directory with the content:

[Platforms]
WindowsArguments = fontengine=gdi

allows the fonts to be substituted again.

[teslasystems]

DjM, mikey, have you updated to the latest beta?
Rows spacing is pretty ok now, tabs are back, VLANs have indentations are grouped in a tree, undo, redo, safe mode are also here…

[Edified]

Request: Sidebar menus with submenus should open the flyout on Press instead of on Release. This mimics other menu behaviors.

I’m not sure if there’s any downside to showing the submenu on hover. In fact if I open a submenu and hover around other menus, they pop out automatically after about 500ms… and it doesn’t seem terrible.

[Edified]

Request: “Safe Mode” checkbox on the Connect Screen.

Bonus points for a “Read Only” checkbox.

[nz_monkey]

Request: “Safe Mode” checkbox on the Connect Screen.

Bonus points for a “Read Only” checkbox.

These are good ideas !

[teslasystems]

Request: “Safe Mode” checkbox on the Connect Screen.

Bonus points for a “Read Only” checkbox.

I don’t get the point. What are you going to put in a safe mode, when a router is not connected?
And what checkbox are you talking about?

[randomwalk]

Dear Mikrotik,
Today i had a chance to test new Winbox under Linux. Having read limited feedback from other
users I had somewhat low expectations, but I must say the first impression is… well, the product
is in the hands of unprofessional developer, or a bad management decision. Why?

QT Bloatware, humongous executable size, unnecessary dependencies.
Which will lead to high cost of code maintenance, poor quality product, and unhappy customers.

Compare the two versions:
Old Winbox = 2.3 MB
New Winbox = 57.4 MB. That is an increase of 2,395.65 % increase (!)

QT based Winbox v4 is a poor quality product. I hear the word “Modern” a lot. Well, the so called
“modern” user interface is an excuse to justify unwillingness of developers to solve problems and
instead take and easy route. The result is very poor UI. You see, QT was not developed to make
good quality functional products, it was developed to mass produce mediocre products very fast.
The problem with that approach is that mediocre products do not last long. The Winbox interface
comes with soft grey font on whit~ish / grey-ish backround simply bad on eyes. Bad on eyes.

QT wastes a lot of resources, wastes time of users who work with Winbox v4. It wastes your time,
it wastes many other people’s time who come on this forum to voice their concerns. Time waste.
Put this WinboxQT project to sleep, before to late. The choice of tools predetermines the result.

Look at PureBasic development environment instead. It has been around for 26 years !, a mature,
and powerful toolset with active community and enough developers to hire who able to deliver the
quality outcome.

With PureBasic, the same code with limited changes will produce NATIVE, CROSS-PLATFORM
USER INTERFACE for Windows, Mac OS, AND Linux.
Moreover, PureBasic has a younger sibling: SpiderBasic to help produce the code which will run
in a browser, including on Android. Small, portable, fast executives, with no dependencies.

I do not have a vested interest to promote PureBasic here, I am not affiliated with it in any way,
just to be clear. Thanks.

[itimo01]

@randomwalk

promote PureBasic here

Lets just switch to java.


Mikrotiks competitors use it, so it has to be good.

(that’s a joke)

[teslasystems]

Dear Mikrotik,
Today i had a chance to test new Winbox under Linux. Having read limited feedback from other
users I had somewhat low expectations, but I must say the first impression is… well, the product
is in the hands of unprofessional developer, or a bad management decision. Why?

QT Bloatware, humongous executable size, unnecessary dependencies.
Which will lead to high cost of code maintenance, poor quality product, and unhappy customers.

Compare the two versions:
Old Winbox = 2.3 MB
New Winbox = 57.4 MB. That is an increase of 2,395.65 % increase (!)

QT based Winbox v4 is a poor quality product. I hear the word “Modern” a lot. Well, the so called
“modern” user interface is an excuse to justify unwillingness of developers to solve problems and
instead take and easy route. The result is very poor UI. You see, QT was not developed to make
good quality functional products, it was developed to mass produce mediocre products very fast.
The problem with that approach is that mediocre products do not last long. The Winbox interface
comes with soft grey font on whit~ish / grey-ish backround simply bad on eyes. Bad on eyes.

QT wastes a lot of resources, wastes time of users who work with Winbox v4. It wastes your time,
it wastes many other people’s time who come on this forum to voice their concerns. Time waste.
Put this WinboxQT project to sleep, before to late. The choice of tools predetermines the result.
…

Yes, yes, yes.

And just a little addition about RAM usage:
WinBox 3: <30 MB
WinBox 4: >300 MB with the same window set. And can easily reach 500 MB and more with not so much opened windows.

And with all of that it’s very unresponsive in comparison with very fast lightweight WinBox 3.
There are delays and freezes everywhere: when switching between tabs, with log autoscrolling, when opening a subwindow.

20-30 times higher resource usage and much slower performance and responsiveness…

[infabo]

These are common issues with modern GUI software - they often use a lot of RAM, put a heavy load on the CPU, and can feel slow to use. That’s just how things have evolved over the past 20 years. Just look at Windows and other Microsoft software.

Still, one thing that shouldn’t be done wrong is the design: it should look modern, be efficient, and support productivity.