Internet resources weren't amazing back then (and, of course, still dial up at home until around 2005) so I didn't know QBASIC existed at first. We were on to Windows XP by then, which I don't believe included it, but our old '98 box would have had it.

I think I did also get my hands on a free version of Liberty BASIC from another book at one point, because it was on an included CD-ROM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_BASIC

I also moved into the Web sphere, because of course there were HTML books and I was already looking at JavaScript. I ended up picking up PHP for awhile, then eventually got into Java (especially after Minecraft was on the scene) and that has served me well career-wise.