In my opinion this was not good. Basic was considered harmful and was possibly the first computer thing to be considered harmful. Line numbers, REM statements, the GOTO statement and much else had to be unlearned by anyone moving on to a professional set of programming tools.

At the time we felt enabled rather than held back. But many Microsoft products were like that. The OS on a BBC micro was far ahead of DOS. Then the whole concept of the personal computer took hold even though we had already seen networking. Then the browser wars.

Now we learn that Linux is to be in Windows good and proper. So we are getting there in the end.