[Bobalu]

I have a couple of Dragons here..they are nice.

You can find AVR programmers on ebay from China for as little as 3.99 with shipping included. I have not tried using them but I suppose I could get one and see if it would be suitable for use by novices following a tutorial.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USBASP-USBISP-AVR-Programmer-USB-ATMEGA8-ATMEGA128-/180768377568?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a16a28ae0

[Mycroft Holmes]

Indeed, cheap programmers are widely available. I have seen directions for homebrew programmers that look nearly free if you have wire, perfboard, and usb connectors. The whole ATTiny deal is pretty well thought out.

AVRStudio 4 was pretty slick but I was forced to move to AVRStudio 5 to use the 4313. It's based on .net so it is slow and clunkey and initially rather buggy. But it got better.

I've done some development under Linux using Eclipse and AVRDude but the Windows/AVRStudio path is probably easier, and if you are using a Dragon for debugging Windows is much easier. Love me some penguin though. Do nothing on Windows but AVR anymore.