I would suggest Python and C, in that order. Python will let you quickly have fun building large applications, and it will teach you object oriented programmin

I would suggest Python and C, in that order. Python will let you quickly have fun building large applications, and it will teach you object oriented programming. Once you know what a loop is, though, go by "Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment" and a decent C book and trip out on that for a year or so to really understand how computers work. I don't write C for a living at all, but it is great to know how everything is working under the hood, and APUE will teach you that. To be honest, I wouldn't bother with Java. I think in ten years Java will look like Ada does now: we will all be asking ourselves "What were we thinking?" I also wouldn't bother working on anything but Unix, but that is just bias...