I dont know much about the relevant powers and/or ease of use of many, if any, languages really. other than obvious ones such as html etc etc. Im taking computer science at University next year, and their language is Java, just wondered what your opinion was on why they chose this (i would imagine its non-specific platform ability) but yeah just wondered.

I have not yet programmed with .net, but I don't think Java is outdated yet. It's cross-platform is still pretty good. It's a great introductory language, and at school we do four years of it. I don't think it's a bad language. Once you learn Java, you will be able to learn practically any language in a matter of weeks/days/hours depending on how much time you put into it.

Agreed. It's a great language for learning object oriented programming, without too much of technicalities getting in the way.
<troll>And you don't lock yourself to Microsoft.</troll>
<reality check> But then, there's Mono if you want to use .net outside of windows. And for that matter, java is owned by sun, which is not any better than ms.</reality>

Check these out:

Programming FAQ
So You Want To Learn To Program?

They should answer any questions you might have.

Java will always be around, despite the progress of the .NET framework. Programmers will choose which tool is best for the job. In some instances that will be Java, in others that will be C# .NET. Bottom line is, look forward to seeing both in the future. Btw- just based on local employment listings... Java seems to be predominant. Having said that, I'm one of those programmers that would probably just write it in C++.

yeah i'd already read those incase my questions were answered, and it told me a bit, was merely wondering what everyones view was on the question. The first real language i started learning was C++ but the book was quite old, and whilst i could understand it.. it was pretty complex. Java seems considerably easier, although that may just be because i'm familiar with the style and meaning from having begun with C++. Looking forward to becoming a professional programmer in the future.
If you wanna help could you check out my topic on Telnet and help me with my problems there, i'd explain it here briefly but its quite a long problem lol. put shortly, How do you log onto a telnet server, that is hosted on your machine, from your machine, in windows XP. my logins/passwords wont work. thankyou in advance.

If you are a Windows(xxx) programmer, then it would probably be a good idea to jump on the .Net bandwagon. However, if you are a *nix/osx programmer, Java is still a really good choice for your Object Oriented + non-compiled(binary)/bytecodie goodness.

Thanks all. I'll stick with it for now, always time to learn more. i know bits of a few but i should really get one sorted so i can actually start creating useful programs.
Thanks again
Mal.