Pat Fitzner

Although Lua is a very simple,efficient, elegant and welcoming language, Python is extremely versatile. Therefore, if you want to get into programming without a defined direction, Python is the way to go. It has a lot of libraries, the ability to do anything and it is closer to other languages than Lua is (yeah I know about Lua and C, but from a learner's point of view, it makes sense). Additionally, Python will be a marketable skill, but I for one have not yet seen job offers for Lua devs.

Hey! Regardless of your choice of platform, you will need to install and learn Git. So start there! The differences between GitHub and GitLab are not relevant to you at this stage.

I recommend the Spyder IDE. It is laid out as an IDE as opposed to a notebook, but it still runs iPython under the hood, very much like Jupyter. It also allows you to easily visualize variable values, and is overall more versatile than a notebook. It is also Free and Open Source.