Does anyone here use PICs and know a relatively easy way of programming them from linux which they have personally been successful with? I've tried some tutorials and the chip isn't responding. I would prefer a serial programmer but USB would be fine too as long as the schematics are straightforward. The pic I am looking to use right now is a PIC16f88 but I need a setup which could be used with different chips easily. I don't want to have to run a separate Windows machine just for this.

I have been developing for PIC for a couple of years using Ubuntu,

First I have been working with SDCC an Piklab, and for programming using a serial programmer external, it worked without problems, but cannot debug.

Now I'm using MplabX from microchip which work without problems in my Ubuntu 10.04, for programming I'm using Pickit3 (not so expensive), I haven't tested another programmer including bootloaders yet but I certainly recommend it vs using Windows (but Mplab with VirtualBox worked like a charm to me before)

Hope it helps