I'd encourage you to have a look at this definition of free software by the GNU project - it's not true that every free software is open source.
GitHub is a perfectly fine way to start, as well as "web-centric" languages. Everyone's programming journey is going to be different, many will differ from yours. Many "serious" projects are built using web-centric languages, and there's no reason to gatekeep what you consider to be a serious project or a serious language.
it's not true that every free software is open source.
Did you read this article actually?
Freedom number 2 states:
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
I'd encourage you to have a look at this definition of free software by the GNU project - it's not true that every free software is open source.
GitHub is a perfectly fine way to start, as well as "web-centric" languages. Everyone's programming journey is going to be different, many will differ from yours. Many "serious" projects are built using web-centric languages, and there's no reason to gatekeep what you consider to be a serious project or a serious language.
Did you read this article actually?
Freedom number 2 states:
Look, I don't know who asked you to keep the gate, but it's cool, we don't need you to.