I would choose Delphi over VB. It is based on Pascal which Borland have extended to make it an object orientated langauge. Quite powerful and a lightning fast compiler. But if you are starting, I would go for C#. Both Microsoft and Borland have a C# compiler. C# was developed by Anders Helsburg, (name spelling?) who also developed Delphi. It is a modern language that has elements of C++, Delphi, Perl, it has all the good bits from these and if you know c or c++, it is quite easy to pick up.