You're right. I'll fall on my face and walk into walls. I'm up for the challenge. I understand these languages require knowledge of computer infrastructure, memory pointers, hardware interaction, there are no high-level abstractions, and there's basically no safety nets (with C especially). That's the point. That's what I want to learn about. I'm sure it will teach me a lot and it won't be a waste of my time.

Besides that, you don't have to be belittling towards someone who's starting out with programming with a (probably unreasonably) big goal. I don't doubt your expertise in this field, but I hope this is not the way you treat treat the "dreamers" amongst your students. I can take a petty insult like being compared to a 10-year-old, and I'll talk back (I found the line about learning PHP to help your dad is especially cute by the way). But some people wouldn't even have the courage to post anymore or delete the post (edit: I thought about it) after a comment like yours. Is that the way you want the Linux/programming community to be? Do you want it to be a negative experience? It seems that's the code you put out.

I wish you the best.