Newbie question on Standalone ATMega

I knwo I have read many peopel post dis-regard that as the UNO is usable..

I just cant recall if it was for BOTH applications.. or just one

I recall some saying use v22/v23 for something (burning bootloader?).. as v1.0 has a delay or something that gets in the way?

and for uploading a sketch.. you CAN use an UNO.. (I may have these backwards though).. I dont have an UNO.. =(