What little I can do, I've done with AVR chips rather than pic because back when I started, it was free software (and pretty nice too) from the AVR website while the PIC stuff was still pricey. I don't know for sure, but from what I'm hearing it may be that the PIC company (Microchip?) figured that out and offers something free now, but I'm not sure. Another thing about AVR is that their chips are supposed to be more universal across the board while the PIC stuff needed a different compiler or programmer or whatever to suit several different chips.
TI has also figured out that there is a fairly good market in the hobbyist community and they have been aiming some of their stuff at that market. I think TI is by far the least expensive to deal with. They have some pretty interesting technology going for it too, such as extremely low power requirements, i.e. little batteries lasting for years. Anyway, unless you're already committed, you might check them out too with the MSP430 Launchpad development board:
http://e2e.ti.com/group/msp430launchpad/w/default.aspxHere's a pretty good place to ask about particulars:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Use their search first unless you have a specific question (such as "Does PIC still require a $100 compiler?" etc.) because they get the "which chip is best?" question about every two days.
