Ya got that backwards.............

Qbasic was the original free version without a compiler. They were actually on the Windows disks until after Windows 95. Versions 1.0 and 1.1 are still used.

Quickbasic versions have a compiler to create stand alone EXE files. QB4 has better number calculations, but QB4.5 is still the most popular version. These versions are illegal to use if you did not pay for them. But many still can get them on the web.

The PDS versions (7 and 7.1) started to get into better memory allocation, etc., but were never truly finished. M$ decided to start VB to work with their "amazing" new Windows systems by then. You can't trust M$ to keep updating older software. Especially for programmers! NET has made VB into a nightmare!

Now they are slowly trying to kill DOS alltogether! Keep your old machines working.