I agree with you there Kmon. I'm partial to C++ over here. Java is great to learn off of. Since it can be used on almot any machine that has Java installed on it. Going from a home computer all the way up to mainframe. And I think Super computers too I am not too sure of that. So don't even quote me on that part.
Java is a great stepping stone in order to better yourself for other programming language. Java is simlilar to Like C++ in the way that it has been based off of C++. So its more or less universal amongst machines. Where as C++ you have different flavours around that will vary from the different operating systems out there. Like Solaris, Linux(And their different Distro out there.), AIX, Sco-unix, hp ux, Windows, etc, etc. So Java is a good base to start off with. Better than what I had started 20 years ago with GWbasic with numbering the lines and then write the actual code. Then run it in order to debug it at the same time.