Differences between ABS and PLA? Which is best?

[curious aardvark]

it's not nearly as difficult as some of the specialty PLA's (from what I've been reading).

don't know where you're doing your reading - but I've tried most of the weird and wonderful filaments out there and they ALL stick to gluestick, none of them warp and they all print just as easily as decent pla.

Most of them don't need heated buildplate - none of them need a heated enclosure. And because you don't need rafts and prints rarely fail - even the expensive ones are actually pretty cost effective. As long as you design and print properly :-)

I did do a fair bit of printing with abs, before, I finally tried pla and realised everything I'd heard, was just so much nonsense.

Don't have heated enclosure, always used a raft. Apart from the odd crack and ocasional issues getting the raft off after a long print - it printed okay.
But just okay - you needed to adjust for shrinkage, and that was annoying - don't need to do that with pla.
Hell I even printed a secret heart box with abs.

But the smell when it's printing is unpleasant, acetone is not good for you and my pla prints - so far - have been stronger, less brittle, stiffer and just all round better parts.

I don't print figurines or pretty models. Most of my prints are original designs, either relacing a broken widget or making something original for a specific purpose. So having something look shiny and smooth - is not any part of my desing brief :-)

That said - un processed pla prints look much better than un processed abs prints. Abs looks kinda dull and rough. pla tends to be a bit shinier and smoother looking.