I wrote a Microcontoller Family Selection Guide for newbies, students, and hobbiests:
http://www.ericengler.com/downloads/microcontroller%20family%20selection%20guide.pdf
I just started accumulating infomation for the follow-up document on tools. This is AVR specific at this time, at it has a bunch of bits I gleaned from the documents on Atmels web site, and also in this forum:
http://www.ericengler.com/downloads/avr%20programmers.txt
Most of my experience is with the 68hc12 and I have helped a lot of students and college professors over the years. In light of the recent market trends, I think it's best to move colleges away from the 68hc12 and towards the AVR or other newer families.
Help me find any bugs that may exist in these documents. I'll expand these documents to cover more ground if you give me enough details.
Eric