Not quite sure. I want to learn a language... any suggestions? What's a fairly easy language for beginners?
easy to learn:
go with python and maybe lua
if you really want to learn programming - dig into C. if you're when still on it and want to look at object oriented programming - look into C++. object oriented programming can be pure evil and it's actually hard to get it right.
every programmer should at least know what a null-pointer(-exception) is imho. the most java-coder i know don't... (or they simply don't care to actually handle them)
if you program on linux, just use a text editor and look into writing makefiles. if you progress further you can consider using a IDE (i can't recommend you one through) or move to cmake. i personally hate it. you should at least get the idea how this is working. and maybe (i hope so ) you will get to the conclusion that writing *good* makefiles is the best way to go
On a side note do any of you Linux users feel safer, happier, maybe vindicated etc... for using Linux now that all of the PRISM stuff leaked about the US Government surveillance?
Do you actually feel more secure than say using Windows or even OSX? Do you even care? Do you think using Linux is even really a benefit in cases like this?
PRISM like operations aren't new.
I feel pretty safe, yes. I'm aware that there is no 100% safety (it never is if you connect to the net), but I'm pretty relax when it's about the safety of my box. I don't compile the packages nor do I read every single peace of source-code for the software running on my box, but I trust the FOSS-developers way more than i do proprietary-software-devs. I don't use facebook, twitter etc. some of my email-addresses are on private-servers (= I'm pretty sure these are fine and not read by the goverment etc), others are on free-mail-providers (I'm aware these could be accessed by 3rds, so i'm not using them for really private and work-stuff). I'm not using cloud-services nor do I register everywhere i see a "register"-button. Never using my real name. or my real birthday. Still - if they want to create a profile of me, I'm sure it'll be pretty accurate. You can try your best to keep it as little data about you as possible but you can't completely avoid it. I'm not from the US and mostly don't use US-located-services.
-> the internet-services I'm using aren't safe whatsoever. I'm aware of that. But I do trust in my own box
@freddy
about firewalls:
most windows-firewalls are closed-source so you can't be *really* sure what it's actually doing. they can have their own backdoors like every other kind of software
please name some windows firewalls you had in mind