Which language to learn?

I know that this has to be a quite frequently asked question, but a group only gets more valuable members by helping people who want to learn. Currently I'm sort of proficient with DOS commands. Obviously you cannot create a complicated graphical program out of DOS. I've heard all over this board that Python sucks, which ironically is the one language most of my friends recommended learning. What language can I learn that is actually useful?

I come to /prog/ for you guys are the only assholes on the internet that will bash other languages if they do suck. Forums have to be 'unbiased' and 'neutral'.

If your total programming experience is using DOS, then it'll be quite a while before you learn to do anything "useful".  C IMO is better for a beginner to study than Python, but either would be good.  Grab the free Visual Studio Express C++ compiler from microsoft, and find a decent online tutorial somewhere.