Unfortunately, programming is not something I generally recommend - unless you still under 16 or so and already doing impressive things without any formal training or schooling   Most of the commerical apps are chock full of bloated code and security vulnerability, and with the proprietary model, the budding sociopaths around the world know more about what's in there than users, admins, or programmers!  Worse, with globalization, many of these plush jobs are highly susceptible to off-shoring.

If you really want to learn programming, all is not lost - although the bulk of the textbooks, lessons, and course will still be 'stuck on stupid' with Mircosoft, the 21st century really belongs to those who can grasp and capitalize on the revolutionary paradigm shifts Heidi and Alvin Toffler talk about in their latest book.  Think Linux, GPL, and Free and Open Source Software!

Sidebar: I recommend Knoppix or Ubuntu (new version just today, in fact) because you can take them for a test drive without mucking up your current harddrive.  (And any Microsoft user is intimately familiar with how frail and fragile Windows installs are.)  Download the ISO image, burn it to CD, and reboot.  This creates a virtual disk in RAM - it's significantly slower than installing to HD because the apps have to swap out from the CD as they are called, but both do a very good job auto-detecting and configuring your hardware and ADSL connection.  The only caveat is that the ISO run around 700 MB so don't try this with a 56K dial-up connection unless you can let it run overnight