Well if you want to use minimal resources, get Beej's Guide to Network Programming (I highly recommend it for anyone tinkering with sockets in C/C++) and write it in C!
Valmond
Just freeze the python to an executable is one way to do it (windows, linux, ...).
But now I'm curious, what's your hobby project about? I mean you can close to chose any language and do anything ... Do you do database? Graphics? Is it supposed to be online? Cryptographics? Gpgpu? Massive multithreading? Large calculations?
If you don't give us more information then we can only tell you to chose the language you like or master the most IMO.
C/C++ senior developer here.
If you don't know, learn Python.
There are very few things python can't do on a hobby level. It's simple and have tons of libraries and tutorials and so on. Also, no need to set up a compiler or so, it just runs straight out of the box. PyCharm is a simple and elegant IDE with debugging, but you could start out with the simplest text editor just to check things out.
HTH
Yeah they're really killing it.
I saw $8BN from norway, crazily cool.