HI Walter,
Firstly a DSO= Deep Space Object, Nebulas, star clusters etc, anything outside our Solar system.
Your scope will be ok for learning your way around. Once you do upgrade you will notice the difference. Don't expect too much from it though. When you are ready to upgrade you will also want to upgrade the eyepieces as the ones Tasco(and most other company's)supply aren't really the greatest. One that came with my Skywatcher, compared to my Meade 4000 super plossol, was quite bad, fuzzy colours around the edges of the object.
Before jumping into buying a goto i would upgrade to a motor driven one first. I started out with a Skywatcher 130PM, £175 and loved her. I learnt then how to polar align an EQ mount and find my way around the night sky a lot quicker. The motor drive allows the telescope to track an object once centered in the EP. I now have a goto as well which i find excellent for imaging and as a grab n go scope.IMHO i think goto scopes take the fun out of hunting objects down yourself. It's such a buzz when you find your first dso, it would be a shame for you to miss out on that feeling.
I would get the feel for things with what you have then decide what you would prefer to use the scope mainly for, ie solar system objects, dso's, or both then whether you might want to try some imaging later on. As to what brands, well i can only say from my experience. I have used Skywatcher, Celestron and Meade. I love the Skywatcher, my baby, great scope but also wouldn't part with my Celestron SE 4. IMHO the Celestron SE beats the Meade ETX range by miles. Have a look around on the net, loads of useful info can be found. I tend to use one company but they are based here in the UK. They do have some good info.
Sherwoods - Telescopes - Binoculars - Night vision - Microscopes & Giftware
The list goes on but for now have fun with your gift and when your ready to upgrade just post and i'm sure these friendly bunch would be more than happy to help.