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I heard that Python is easy and powerful, but I don't know if I'm on the right track to learn it. I learn from online tutorials, I know basic maths calculation and printing strings, but how long will it take to develop something useful? I don't really know the exact uses of Python, though.

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    What does "useful" mean? Please define "useful". Commented Dec 18, 2009 at 3:04
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    Do you mean how long will it take to "learn" to develop something useful? Commented Dec 18, 2009 at 3:06
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    Also depends on you; Python was my first language, and it took me probably five years before I made something 'useful', due to a lack of motivation Commented Dec 18, 2009 at 3:07
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    Yeah... to learn how to make something useful - which is like something practical and not just printing "Hello World!" Commented Dec 18, 2009 at 3:07
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    "Useful" really needs to be defined. A decimal-to-hexadecimal converter is useful, for example. How long will it take to develop such a converter in Python? 1 second. Commented Dec 18, 2009 at 3:49

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I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for, but I think one or more of the following may be the next step you're looking for.

Perhaps you would like to use a variety of different protocols for a networking program, you could check out Twisted.

Or perhaps if you would like to make a web application or blog you can check out Django.

Or perhaps you would like to make a GUI application, you could take a look at TkInter.

Or perhaps you would like to get into game programming, you could take a look at Pygame.

Or perhaps you would like to ... you can take a look at the Python Package Index.

How long will it take? This depends on your programming background in general. The best way is simply to jump into the topic you're interested in and start on a mini project.

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It will take between six to eight weeks.
I'd recommend PyQt over Tkinter, because it comes with the GUI Designer which makes the whole process of making a GUI application more satisfying.
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Python is a general purpose language. You can use it to make a lot of different things, but it's best suited at stuff that doesn't require a lot of speed, since the high level features have a performance cost.

It's hard to tell how long it will take you to develop something useful. The other day I made a script to help on a small computer administration thing. You could do that with a week or two of experience (or maybe less), depending on your previous programming knowledge and the amount of time you put into studying. However, if you want to make something bigger (maybe an audio player, an IM client, mid-sized stuff like that), you probably need some weeks or months of practice. It depends a lot on the time and energy you invest in programming.

I'd suggest to follow either the official tutorial or Dive Into Python.

In general, it depends on you. Python can be used for simple or complex stuff, and for many different applications. It depends on what you want.

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Have a look at Mark Pilgrim's freely available book called Dive Into Python. I think it's a better choice to start with than online tutorials. The best way to learn a language is to start to work on a project. As I read this book, I started to implement a simple image viewer. As I advanced with the book, I could refine the project progressively. Invent something that is interesting to you.

I also suggest you taking notes when you learn a programming language. When you learn something that can be useful later, make some notes with a simple example, e.g. how to read a text file line by line, convert int to str, convert str to int, basic list operations, etc. Later on you can use these building blocks in a larger project.

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Like every other programming language In order to learn Python you need to write a program with it.
Find a pet project and use python to code it. I also recommend Dive into python" (like anyone else that answered your question).

A few months ago I've decided to learn IronPython (.NET implementation of python), I'vve started by reading "Dive into python" and a few tutorials and then I've started coding a simple board game using IronPython (you can read about it in my blog).

In order to learn a new programming language you need to use it and then you'll know how and where to use it.

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The best way to learn how to do something useful is come up with something useful you want to do. Make sure it's not way out of your league, then do research to accomplish it. That's how a lot of programmers learn languages.

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What other programming background do you have? What programming interests do you have -- web apps, numerical / scientific computations, games, ...? Python is good at many different things, for both beginners and experienced programmers, but the most fruitful approach(es) to it do depend on what you already know, and what really interests you!-)

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Bram who invented bittorrent with python says python is good for writing protocols in addition to aforementioned webapps, games and general purpose. Compared to Java python solves same problem in less code and less ways in longer development and VM time where Java has more ways solve same problem in more code and faster VM and faster development time.

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Making a comparison between Python, and other languages would not help, as there is always somebody who would find a reason to prefer one language instead of another.
If you want a scripting language that is powerful, but that it is easier to read than perl, that doesn't have a curly bracket syntax, and that allows you to learn something about object oriented programming, then Python is the language for you.

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