Which is fine if the person is considering SiLabs, but that's not the entire 8051 pool of devices.

well, you have to start somewhere and, as I have said before, the ability to "look under the hood" (ICE) is, in my opinion, invaluable in getting a grasp of what is going on. Once you have worked with the SILabs derivatives, there is nothing stopping you from taking that knowledge elsewhere. If you are "financially handicapped" and need to use SDCC I still think that, for reasons of ease, documentation, assistance, knowledge of forum responders you will be better off starting with a Keil eval, I think that the Keil "getting started guide", if worked through, probably is the best introduction to coding the '51.

Erik