I am a newbie as well, except I did get to grips with C++.

The biggest thing to get your brain around is classes.  A Class is a
struct with the ability to add code within the struct, that works with
the struct.  I suggest a good Java book.  Order a copy of the JDK, I
think you can order it on CD from Sun,  or get a friend with high-speed
to download and burn you a copy on CD.

Start with text applications, and work through a good beginner book.

W

Take a look at some of the recommendations at the TechBookReport Java page:
http://www.techbookreport.com/JavaIndex.html.

Also worth investigating is the Java tutorial produced by Sun.

Oh, and for light-downloads take a look jCreator (if you're on Windows) or
jEdit if you can't stomach the full download of Eclipse or NetBeans.

HTH

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TechBookReport          http://www.techbookreport.com

Step 1) Make sure you have at least Java 1.4 JDK from
http://java.sun.com/
Step 2) Get yourself a good textbook - I recommend Just Java by Peter
van der Linden, it comes with a CD too. Its a very good book, some
funny parts in there, and it runs through all the basics and a bit
more. It even points you in the right direction on further extensions
to Java.
3) (Optional) Buy online training from http://www.sun.com/ OR sign up
to ACM ( http://www.acm.org/ )  and get free Sun courses.
4)  (optional) have a look at IBM's Java website. It is very good!
http://www-130.ibm.com/developerworks/java/
5)  (Optional) There are websites that have free tutorials:
http://www.programmingtutorials.com/ is one of them (I think)
6) Really good idea: Look on university computing departments websites,
because they often put all there lecture slides online.