This thread is waaay too long and also rambles on uselessly at times (e.g. persons recommending language X that they just so happened to learn on). Why doesn't somebody consolidate what's useful into a new thread, with only a few first posts, and this old one can be unstickied and we can be rid of it?
I think it'd make this thread more useful and more likely for somebody to bother reading.
I've split the topic and put it in the "About this site" section, so that it doesn't cause the topic in question to become even more rambling The original topic is: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3320 .
I agree that the thread is more rambling than it should be, but will wait for a general consensus before unstickying.
Really, the Wiki should be the place that contains this kind of stuff. The problem in the past has been that people don't always read the wiki before reading their first post. I think that the Getting Started topic on the wiki is not bad for anyone looking to OSDev, but it also has some more general links for people wishing to program. It could perhaps do with some expansion with novice programmers in mind.
I tend to agree with the suggestion, at the moment there is a lot of data in that thread that could be distilled for easier consumption. But I'd like to add a recomendation that a link to the old thread be provided in the first post.
The second point I'd like to make is that new programmers tend to think about ends rather than means. They more than likely are interested in programming not for the challenge of programming, but to accomplish something with a program. The best example of this is that a lot of kids want to program video games. Prehaps external links to specific regimens should be included (including a wiki link to Getting Started for OS Development).
The third point, after a quick scan of the current thread, I've noticed that shell scripting isn't really addressed. Shell scripting (as opposed to batch files) is a really good way to do interesting stuff quickly (see my previous point). And gives one the gist of programming. This can even be done on Windows with Cygwin.
The fourth point is that I'd like to recommend that newbies avoid certain languages, not because they are difficult, but because they are time sinks (initially). But I don't know how to explain this warning properly (in a way that newbies would actually heed the advice of trying to do too much at once).
The fifth point is that programming isn't something one learns overnight (or in 21 days for that matter). Programming is also something that requires the ability to learn on your own, because technologies come and go. Anyone that can't learn a new technology or skill from a book, guide or manual is not respected as a programmer. Asking questions that can be answered by documentation only frustrates those that have had to learn by reading. Also, trying to be clever by stating that you are not a programmer, but want to become a programmer does not excuse asking a programming question on a programming forum without being a programmer. There are forums dedicated to beginning programmers, this isn't one of them!
The last point is a warning to avoid looking stupid and getting nowhere on forums. Newbies tend to have a hard time seeing a point of view that they have yet to experience. Thus, beating the point into them may be the only way to express it. I suppose a faster statement would be "Very little is expected from newbies, but on forums such as this one, wasting other people's time is a cardinal offense." but they tend not to recognize that they are wasting other people's time.
And finally, if HTML is recommended (which is like saying that writing dinner menus will prepare one for cooking), then Javascript should be recommended alongside it. The only problem is that Javascript can be an infuriating language at times.
The original topic is: 
