Using ASP and want to calculate an MD5? Oh, you need to pay an add-on for that. Want to send an email? Ditto.
Then there was PHP, with all included (and cheaper hosting, because Linux). I started working on a web shop and after a month ASP was legacy and PHP the new cool thing, together with MySQL instead of using... Access as "database" in ASP.
I was new to the world of software development in 2000 (in high school) but immediately loved PHP / MySQL. Made it easier for me to stand up websites for my two bands and integrate more dynamic and database-oriented features into those sites. And hand-wrote JS for things that at the time seemed cool (silly in retrospect hover effects).
It was the SQL part of the book that helped me build the SQL skillset that is an integral part of my day job.
Using ASP and want to calculate an MD5? Oh, you need to pay an add-on for that. Want to send an email? Ditto.
Then there was PHP, with all included (and cheaper hosting, because Linux). I started working on a web shop and after a month ASP was legacy and PHP the new cool thing, together with MySQL instead of using... Access as "database" in ASP.