I really would have liked to try this software, but it's impossible with such a hopelessly crippled demo. What kind of project has 20 line items...a birthday party for someone's cat?

I have a 7-year project with almost 800 line items of tasks. It's simply not possible to get a feel for how Merlin will perform in my application with a 20-item demo. I've tried other PM apps that perform well with, say, 50 line items of tasks, but when I load my 800-line project, they sputter, stagger, drool, or crash. They simply aren't designed to do the heavy lifting required for such a large project. So I've already learned -- the hard way -- about these pathetic little 20-item demos; they tell me nothing about how the app will REALLY perform when I load my project and try to do some serious work.

I honestly don't understand the point of offering a crippled demo. Don't they want users to see how the program will perform under real-world conditions? I really hate to say this, because I actually LIKE the way Merlin looks and feels...well, at least to the extent that I could tell anything about it with only a fraction of my project loaded. It leads me to believe that this is just another specimen in the long list of OS X PM apps that provide great eye candy, but no serious power or sophistication.

For example, where is the resource leveling? There's no mention of resource leveling on the developer's web site, which is usually an indication that the feature doesn't exist. I certainly couldn't find it in any of the menu items. I guess that some folks don't mind the lack of resource leveling -- or maybe they just don't have lots of tasks that run for long durations -- but in a project with 800 line items across 7 years, resource leveling is an absolute necessity.

There are lots of things about Merlin that I like: MS Project file import and export, lots of flexibility in the print output options, customizable view options, and it generally seems to be a pretty intuitive and Mac-like interface, to name a few. I'm intrigued by the risk management features; too bad the demo is unusable or I'd explore them further.

Merlin has promise -- there's no question about that -- but without resource leveling, it's just another entry in the long list of OS X PM apps that simply do NOT provide a truly functional alternative to MS Project. I really wish one existed. (sigh) Until one does, I'll have to stick with MS Project. It's butt-ugly, horribly convoluted, requires me to use Windows, and loaded with quirks...but it works, and so far it has no functional equal in the world of OS X.

In the meantime, my advice to Merlin's developer is this: Revise your demo policy. Make your demo fully functional for a limited time period — say, 15 to 30days — so users with large projects can do a serious, fair evaluation. Under your current policy, your demo is useless for that purpose. Consequently, the probability of my buying a license is precisely ZERO.