You can use any 8266 modules available to try. Only two steps: burn your 8266 module with the NodeLua firmware and create a project in the WebIDE.
There's no huge client side IDE runs on your PC, all the things are running in your browser, so you can develop on Linux, Mac OS X and MS Windows. After initial firmware burning, wires connection is no longer required. All the Lua codes and even serial outputs (still in progress) are running over the air.
Every time you modify the codes, click "Save & Run" and wait few seconds, your Node will reboot automatically and run with the new codes. (currently you need to reset your Node manually, will be done in the next release;)
I have implemented the following modules currently: wifi, gpio, cloud, timer. Please see the API documents(http://nodelua.org/doc/api-references/timer/) for detail.
The project site is: http://nodelua.org/. Please feel free to ask any questions here.
Have fun with it!
EDIT:
NodeLua firmware is a open source project under Apache License. Here is the github page: https://github.com/haroldmars/nodelua
The name may seems little confusing with nodemcu. To clarify I'm not a member of the nodemcu team. Nodelua has separated history and API defining. The name is some kinds of coincidence. I registed nodelua.org on the early June, made a github page and planned to do this open source project, but when later Oct I heard about nodemcu. I was little worry about the confusing.
Anyway they're two totally different projects. The nodemcu guys were doing great project, and I'm offering a open source options