Devkit Advance has not been updated in a number of years, devkitARM is based on much newer versions of the FSF sources. There have been many improvements along the way, these are just a few of the reasons you should use devkitARM instead

• More compact toolchain, around 30MB instead of 100.
• Updated more frequently.
• Easy installer for windows, including web update.
• Produces smaller code.
• Compiles faster.
• Built in support for Nintendo DS and Gamepark GP32.

There are some minor differences you should be aware of when compiling code written using the older toolchain. devkitARM uses the standard main function in preference to AgbMain since the reasons for that were based on a misunderstanding of elf targeted compilers. Providing a crt0 and linkscript with each project is no longer necessary, nor is editing the crt0 source. The toolchain provides a crt0 and linkscript for each target it supports and these are switchable using the -specs parameter when linking.

Unfortunately most of the tutorials you'll find on the web are based on the old toolchain and are not usually suitable for use with devkitARM. Example code which uses libgba is provided which will help the would be programmer in their quest.

devkitARM is the natural successor to Devkit Advance and is now being used by more homebrew programmers than the earlier toolchains. While Devkit Advance was a great starting point for Gameboy Advance programming in it's day it was difficult to use for other ARM platforms such as the GP32 and the new DS due to some gba specific patches. This is no reflection on Jason Wilkins who did sterling work on providing a toolchain for homebrew GBA programming where none existed. Devkit Advance was the best choice in it's day but is now quite outdated.