Python all the way. It let's you get things done rather than having to worry about verbose syntax. You can't avoid Java in the long term, but Python is the best way to start. As for others recommending C, it's a terrible choice for first language. You need to know how it works, but please don't use it on a regular basis unless you're hacking kernels.

^{C die-hards shouldn't feel personally offended, but you can't deny that a huge chunk of bugs in all software comes from people (from newbs to pros) making silly mistakes when managing memory. Just take a look at a random sample of CVEs, I can guarantee you at least half have to do with bad memory access. I always discourage C usage unless it's for embedded or performance critical parts. C++ is a step in the right direction.}

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party, but here's my two cents:

If I were you, I would learn both eventually. That being said, while there's a good chance you'll want to use both at some point, each language has a very different use case.

Python is an awesome scripting language. It focuses on forcing you to write concise, very easy to read code. Python programs are some of the easiest there are to understand. It is a dynamic (but fairly strongly) typed language, meaning you can assign a number to a variable, and then overwrite that variable with something else of a different type, but it will not implicitly convert one type to another. ("1" + 1 will throw a type error, for example.) Basically, it's flexible but not too flexible, easy to read and learn, and has excellent documentation. Throw in its awesome standard library that lets you use it in almost any context, and you have an excellent language for shorter side projects and one-off scripts.

Java, on the other hand, is a much more heavy duty language. Java is a very verbose, strict, statically typed language. A good example of this is that when you declare a variable, you have to explicitly declare what type that variable will hold. If you ever try to assign anything to that variable that is another type, an error will be thrown. Now, this adds a lot of extra overhead from a new programmer's perspective, because you will write a lot more code for new, smaller projects than you would for something written in Python. (or just about any scripting language.) On the other hand, when working on a larger project, this behavior is invaluable, as the compiler can catch a lot of hidden bugs or mistakes you might make when changing the code that a scripting language couldn't catch. Also, Java is very much bound to Object Oriented Programming (OOP). If you haven't learned much about it yet, Java will take more effort to learn than something like Python, but you will learn a lot more, and OOP is another nice thing that helps to keep larger codebases maintainable irrespective of the language itself.

To sum things up:

Python:

• Easier to learn/read
• Can be used for many different tasks
• Dynamically typed
• Ideal for smaller projects

Java

• More to learn (but OOP is a very valuable paradigm you should learn)
• Type-related bugs are very easy to identify
• Statically typed
• Ideal for larger projects

As I said, I think you should learn both at some point, but which one you learn first depends on what you currently know. What languages have you used so far, and for what?

Javascript Developer. Python was the first language I was taught while studying Computer Science. It was quick to grasp, pretty forgiving when making mistakes, and can provide a lot of options. I work with Java sometimes when trying to communicate between platforms like Android. I find it hard to work with at times (bugs, limitations with in the language itself, a bit slow, etc), there are more robust options in everyday applications with Java though. Python has a lot of potential as well, I have friends using it to code particle systems, fluid dynamics, and plugin functionality for their company that does CGI for block buster movies. I did find it hard at first to switch from python to C/C++, yet I highly recommend Python to start and see where it takes you.

They're both used heavily in industry, learn both. Python is probably the easier of the two to learn unless you've already got some C background in which case Java will seem more familiar.

Python, all the way. I'm a .NET developer, and despise Java for the few times I've had to use it.

What language do you know now?

As people have mentioned, Python is probably easier to start with.

Both are good to start with. Java might have a higher learning curve but will force you to learn the basics of Object Oriented Programming early on. Python you can get away with not learning about it for a while.

I'd recommend http://learnpythonthehardway.org/ if you decide to go the python route. Python would also be more useful than Java if you want to write some scripts for automation.

Start with Python.

But first, get a GitHub account so you have a centralized location to store all of your code. Create 1 Git repository for each project including tiny projects such as "hello world!".

You won't learn anything if you're disorganized.

Python is great for small and simple prototypes or tools.

If I have to program for the Java Virtual Machine, I'd use some other language that targets it like Scala, Groovy, or even Jython for small projects (which is Python that runs on the JVM). That's because I don't see the point of Java's way of doing things, it's philosophy and the way they decided to implement it just seems backwards to me, although they have abandoned part of that and are moving to greener pastures, which places them about 10 years behind other languages, but still, better late than never.

Go hard like a big dog. Java, but why not both?