AVR, PIC, or Arduino?

[XCVG]

I've been wanting to try microcontrollers for a while now. Hopefully I will be able to get something sometime soon but I'm not sure what to get. I thought I wanted an AVR but I'm not sure. There's the PIC, and the AVR, but I'm also considering the Arduino. It has a lot of fans and looks easy to use. Also, I know the Arduino is AVR-based. Does that mean I can make a ghetto-duino with just an AVR and a few components?

So... what do you use? What should I get?

[marshallh]

The PICs are usually used more often in commercial applications because new parts aren't released as often -with AVRs, the parts are phased out sooner in favor of newer designs.

I'd go with AVRs because the tools are easier, open source, and you usually get more bang for your buck. Hooking up bare MCUs isn't hard, if you want to spend the extra $$$ on an Arduino go ahead, but I'd just rather design a application-specific thing instead.

[nitro2k01]

Making a ghetto Arduino is pretty easy. But the Arduino board is pretty nice for two reasons.
1) You get an easy to use USB connection. You can get this yourself, by using an FTDI breakout cable or by using a parallell port programmer.
2) You get female pin headers for easy cable connection. Of course, if you use a breadboard, this is less of a problem.

[XCVG]

I'm probably going to go with an Arduino, because it looks easy to use and apparently it can be used as a ghetto AVR programmer.

Okay, should I get a standard Duemilanove, a Freeduino SB, or a Boarduino? Also, is the protoshield worth using or is it easier/better to just use it with a normal breadboard?

Hooking up bare MCUs isn't hard, if you want to spend the extra $$$ on an Arduino go ahead, but I'd just rather design a application-specific thing instead.

Yeah, but this isn't application specific, I just want to dick around. It probably isn't that hard, but the Arduino is easy to program from what I've heard.

Thanks for all your opinions and help so far!

[XCVG]

I've ordered a Freeduino SB, a Protoshield, and a bare ATMega168 to play around with. Hopefully I'll get it some time this week.