What programming language is best to start off with?

Nothing is easier or more beautiful than Pascal (Turbo Pascal is now freeware). Also, BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is excellent for its interpretive way. But C++ is the way to go, specially if you like system programming such as games. Best compiler is Visual Studio 2008 Express (free from Microsoft.com).

visual basic

Having learnt and used my knowledge C, C++, and Visual Basic on my own and used them in a non-professional programmer capacity, I would vote for Java because of all the excellent college level material and lecture videos available freely (search "University Lectures" on YouTube) as well as many free material from major companies like Sun, IBM, SourceForge etc. Don't know anything about Python, but Wikipedia says it uniquely uses indentation to define code blocks (vesus ,e.g., open and close braces). That's so different from other languages I know that I'd feel it's a bad habit to have as a beginner programming student. However, while Stanford University's beginner programming courses (CS 106A) uses Java, while MIT's 6.0 supposed uses Python. I learned Java with Stanford's CS 106A lectures video and think you should at least watch Lecture 1 to see if you want to go that way. Currently, I'm using UC Berkeley's CS061 Lecture Videos (with Java) to learn "Algorithms and Data Structures". I recommend Java.