VB is good for beginner programmers that have not done any prior programming. Its kinda good just to get a grip on stuff, but soon you will want to advance to C++. Delphi is also a nice, yet unpopular alternative. IMO, it is more powerful then VB but less powerful then any C based language. Another thing to check out is visual studio .net. It has tons of additions to the existing visual basic versions. VB .net is much more powerful and less buggy. I recently got VS .net and enjoy coding in it. BTW, it has visual C++ and VB so you cant go wrong.