Many people think arduino is better. No. it's cheaper... in every way. Parallax is excellent for self learner. The parallax website also provides many more ebooks (free PDF). The best part is that you just follow the code example EXACTLY and things work. Much less frustration for self learners. I have both basic stamp (now 2 stamp kits) and arduino. I mostly picked it up to evaluate it so I can tutor my friend's son. I'm also a professional programmer so this stuff is super easy (c, java, c++, basic, c#, etc,). I'm talking from stand point of self learner who might NOT have a tutor, teacher, mentor....