Interested in learning to program... Help?

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There's a website called codeacademy. Just google the name (Sorry I'm new so I can't post urls) I know a few people that have gotten pretty advanced using that. Or you could go the route that I did and just check out a few books from the library. Python is a nice and simple starter language (But very powerful!). Now, I mainly use Java and C#. Java is very friendly to beginners and some IDEs make it super simple. I like Eclipse. Google "Eclipse IDE"

Linux is more stable than Windows? On what planet?

Sure, it's more stable for heavy-duty server room work, where it is most used. However Windows actually has drivers that consistently work as expected, while in Linux having everything "just work" is sort of a freak accident.

Linux is the worst thing for someone to learn programming on, because the inherent advantages of its customizability will be lost on a beginner, and all the disadvantages in regards to installation and UI will be amplified tenfold.

1998? No. It's common knowledge that Linux does not "just work" out of the box even today. It only works perfectly on laptops which ship with it, because the manufacturer manages to find all the appropriate drivers and tweaks and make sure it's actually workable for that fixed configuration.

Linux is nowhere near Windows and Mac OS in the field of desktop competition. It rewards tinkerers and specialists, not your average Joe who just wants things to work.

This exchange is becoming an OS war, which wasn't the purpose of my post. Each OS has their problems. However, the accessibility, user-friendliness, and widespread popularity of Windows (pre-8, or 8 with RetroUI) is a no-brainer solution for a programming beginner.

This thread is getting exciting

I'm dual booting Ubuntu and 7 and I haven't had a problem with either. Not sure why it was advised to avoid Ubuntu in particular. Let me attempt to bring this back to topic....coding, not OSs...

My college just switched from Visual Basic to Python in our bachelors program. I was grandfathered in but would like to learn either Python or one of the Cs. I'll probably do this on my own instead of taking extra classes. Which one would you all suggest would be a better investment of my time?

Python has some applications in smartphones, and C# (the current object oriented C) is a better all around language. If you don't feel you're getting enough object oriented language experience, go for C#. Some colleges are still teaching linear programming instead of object oriented programming due to budget cuts, but in the real world most everything is object oriented. There are a lot of unemployed linear coders out there.

Thanks. That confirmed what I was kind of thinking. Python wasn't even on my list of what I wanted to learn. The school rolled in Python and I was like "Um, what about C++ or C#?" and the new technology department head told us "Python is great, you'll like it." Like I said, I don't need to take Python to graduate so I'll probably just teach myself C#.

I'd probably say Python. The language is designed to be easy to learn, easy to use, and force some best practices as far as code formatting and layout is concerned. It is also a multi-paradigm language (imperative, structured, functional, and object oriented).

It is also used in a wide variety of applications these days, from shell scripting to desktop GUI apps, to web application frameworks to asynchronous service frameworks, and is often used a a scripting language in various game engines, so there's that you can do with it. It is also used quite heavily in the enterprise (Google is probably the biggest user that comes to mind.)

I personally started with BASIC and C back in the early 1990's, but I would NOT recommend those as first languages in today's ecosystem (or BASIC at all anymore). C would probably be a good next step after you've learned some of the good practices and general structure of programs from Python, to get down and dirty with low level memory and resource management.

PYTHON IS NOT A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE. Stop telling OP who doesn't know anything bad advice.

The only two options for him are either to start with C# or C++. NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES.
Download Visual Studios Express (or torrent the full version) http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/e ... s-products

Then you can learn PHP, JAVA, lots of stuff as they share a similar syntax. Going off to do Pascal, Python, Perl, Visual Basic, and other stuff people said is completely pointless.