Member

I’m fairly new to both programs, and so far I have to say that Merlin 2 seems to be a more mature, more comprehensive application.
I love the OMNI group and their apps, and I did purchase OMNIPlan. Hopefully we’ll see improvements and more features.
A few highlights so far:
Tutorial
OP: OK. In the Manual.
Merlin: Good. In the Manual.
FTS9: Great. Eleven tutorials and practice files, plus tutorial pdf.
Even with OP’s simple example, as a new user it was time consuming figuring out what had to be done in order for the tutorial file to look like the screenshots. For example, ‘Connect Tasks with Dependency Lines.’
Manual:
OP: OK
Merlin: Good. Some language errors but it is fun and easy to understand for the most part.
FTS: Great. Printed manual plus many pdf files.
In OP the screenshots have no reference number, and sometimes no explanation as to how to achieve them.
Disclaimer: I have not read 100% of the manuals, but I guess I’ve read at least 50% of each one.
Importing (mainly Microsoft files):
OP: OK
Merlin: Good
FTS: Great
OP sometimes does not import the hierarchy of certain tasks. It also shows some errors and changes settings such as start ASAP.
Display:
OP: Poor
Merlin: Great
FTS: Good
I love Merlin’s interface. While FTS interface is not that modern looking, it allows me to view more than one time-scale at a time. For example, I can view Quarters and Months and Weeks at the same time. Merlin also has a similar feature. I haven’t found this in OP.
Features:
OP: Poor
Merlin: Great. I love the integration with NovaMind for example.
FTS: Great
Perhaps I haven’t found the great features in OP. Again, I love OMNI and their programs, but this one is often not intuitive and can actually be frustrating.
Support:
OP: Great. They have ninjas, you know :)
Merlin: Great
FTS: I have no idea.
I could write a couple of paragraphs for each highlight, but people tend to prefer summaries, and I’m tired :)
OP is in its first incarnation. I do hope to see it mature and become a great program, and hopefully before there’s a paid upgrade :D
I don’t know how it compares with iTaskX, since my demo expired a while ago.