Marc Lavallée wrote:
Atmel AVR microcontrollers are a serious alternative. They're cheap, powerful, and don't require proprietary development environment. http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/November2004/article352.shtml http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7289
Also the ST7 series from STMicroelectronics have free development tools, a better instruction set than PICs, and an inexpensive programmer: http://www.st.com/stonline/products/support/micro/st7/st7lite.htm
Martin