I totally disagree with Backatter. It's more a matter of which music you wanna play and for you to decide what's important in an instrument. You may also like the sound of an acoustic guitar even more perhaps. And talking about the most painless way of learning guitar would be to choose an classical guitar with nylon strings.

But that's not important. A bit of pain isn't bad, and once the flesh of your fingers is used and hardened a bit it won't hurt anymore ( this may take up some time ). My advice, when it starts to really hurt: Don't play, the guitar isn't some kind of torture device. When you get back to it after a day your skin may already be hardened a bit. I even use my steel acoustic guitar to build up finger strength... but again it's all a matter of which music you want to play, not the pain or the ease of playing that comes with it.

JJ