[HeyLaughingBoy]

90% of everything that I've seen done with the Arduino (that doesn't require portability) can be done with an old PC that has a parallel port and any Linux distro that has gcc.

I'm not dissing the Arduino; I think it's an interesting platform, but it really is overhyped.

[ladyada]

a PC doesn't have analog inputs, cant do PWM outputs, struggles with protocols like i2c, isnt realtime. but it is: loud, hard to enclose nicely, costs more and requires maintenance.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

And none of what you've said falls into the 90% of what I've seen done with an Arduino.