Healthy? I'm not so sure... (Score 1)

Your fear of Java is likely more irrational than healthy. But other replies have covered the important of knowing Java as well as other languages.

Java is a step above VB in terms of having low barriers to entry, which means the market is full of people that can code in Java, but not necessarily create good software in it.

That said, if you're moving to Linux, the right answer is C. Once you know and are adept at C in a Linux environment, every other language is a small matter of syntax and semantics.

Well, maybe not small, but you get the idea...