Advice on embedded programming

[alsaf]

I have just started on electronics and I find the physical part of building circuits and theory interesting. However my primary motivation to get involved in the first place was to program 'closer to the metal' as I was getting bored with using high level languages with large and complicated APIs. While I've got a lot to learn with the theory and the process of physically creating simple circuits, I would like to make a start on the programming side and was looking for advice and suggestions on what to go for. I've done a wee google on this and there are options of programmers, programming kits and platforms like Arduino but I'm not sure what the best options to start with. My main consideration is budget, ease of use and although not absolutely necessary being able to use Linux (I noticed that a few programming dev kits use Windows only libraries).

 

[(*steve*)]

Arduino and PICaxe are two options that are simple and cheap to get in to.

PICaxe is windows only I believe.

 

[alsaf]

Thanks Steve. I'll have a look at those options.