If you can afford £ 10, then the launch pad is the way to just teach yourself the MSP430. You can use the IAR Embedded Workbench or Code Composer Studio, both of which have a limited version of the code that will be large enough to learn. I also do not like it, but one of the two IARs, IMHO, is better, since it is not Eclipse. If you don't mind Java and Eclipse, CCS is a viable option for you. One huge advantage in CCS is that it runs on Linux, but it really is not a patch on Rowley Crossworks that runs on Linux. The latter has a cheap educational license.
As for the emulator and the USB issue, this may be a little pedantic, but it is not an emulator, it is a debugging interface. A debugger is built into the chipset, which allows you to load code into the chip, set breakpoints, one step through the code.
This kit is a great way to start, because the debugger interface is built into the kit, you can access the contacts on the processor, see the LEDs and all that’s good, which gives you the warm feeling that you are programming the chip properly. For the sake of 10 pounds you would not be angry!
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