retrolefty:
Ok, but lets focus a bit. What would be your recommendation to a newbie to the hobby (with little or no electronics or software experiance) as to which would be their best choice to enter the arduino world once the Due is in fact avalible. I vote Uno, you vote ?
Lefty
Right now (October 2012), the Uno. However, I imagine by the January time frame, it would be probably be the Due. There is a saying in parts of the US, that pioneers are the ones with arrows in their back, and anybody that buys a Due on day one is a pioneer. But after the initial problems are sorted out, I see the current 8-bit chips going being more of a niche market. Will it happen overnight? Certainly not, but it will happen.