Definitely it's a New learning curve into MICROCONTROLLER learning ,it makes a lot easier the whole embedded process ,you will experience that if you had taken up PIC microcontroller's tried programming them in C/C++ there is a lot of mishaps and connectivity problem's that you will face initially(However will make you learn) ,but then ATmega's and PIC both are prices same more or less then ATmega based open source system's are in fact blessing's. There is a whole lot of support for it and also a person can just start and make new development's pretty fast.