Would anyone agree with me by saying JavaScript (JS) is a great language to start picking at?

Reasons why I think so:

1) Lax on syntax and where they are placed.
- From this thread, you (the beginner) know that other languages are much more difficult
and you will expect that, but it won't be as scary jumping into it, for the confidence
you (may have) received from programming JS.

2) Games are easy to make on JavaScript (though, there is a limit).
- You can easily make 1941, board games (e.g. Simon), or even Mortal Kombat clone (I almost
finished my version) within about a thousand lines. Usually about one page of code,
since many things (image rendering, etc) is already done for you.

3) The most cross platform language.(?)
- I'm pretty sure it is. Though, correct me if I am wrong.

4) You can just open a relatively recent web browser, and a text editor and you have what you
need to program JS.
- Though, I would prefer Firefox for it's JavaScript console. I haven't really used Internet
Explorer (I.E.) in a while, so I don't know what an equivalent is for I.E.

4a) Most computers have a relatively new web browser and a text editor, so you can be almost anywhere
that doesn't restrict you from a computer, and you can start programming something you were
thinking about.

JavaScript is not without it's faults though, but what language isn't? (*cough* CPP *cough* .. I'm jk)
Such as the lack of real classes. (It will be fully implemented in the next major version of JS IIRC)
But they are not so damning on your work that you can't do things that programming beginners usually want
to do. So anyways, my 2 cents.

If you want something simple, I would go with Qbasic, otherwise, I would go with C++ or C... I have written 23 good qbasic programs and written 13 C++ programs and 15 C programs, so, I would start with an easy language, which I did, Qbasic is the way to go for beginning to program.

In personal opinion, c is the best beginning language.

No.

1) I see that as a pretty good reason not to recommend JS as a beginners language. Programming is accuracy.

2) Games programming is a good way to learn programming overall imho but it's pretty easy wherever SDL is available. Python is my darling, with PyGame writing simple but complete games takes a few dozen lines.

3) Possible, I wouldn't know. There are stand-alone Javascript engines so it's not strictly browser tied. I think it's a moot point since other languages are available on platforms so exotic I wouldn't expect a beginner to start programming on.

4) 4a) True, albeit for small differences between browsers. It's a bit optimistic thinking a JavaScript guru from a Windows background will hack away happily at my machine though. "Kate? No, the name's Bill and I'm looking for an editor. I don't want to conquer anything just give me a browser and stop calling me an iceweasel!"

Another vote for C. Learning C will give you a solid foundation to, if you choose to, learn other languages as well. I see you mentioned that you have worked with HTML. If you primary interest is web-programming however, I would say start with Java.

I find Java to be the best, i have no 'true' experiance, but objects and gui's on c++ are a nightmare compared to java.