Should I use a software hosting solution for my personal projects?

Question

Right now, I keep all of my projects on my laptop. I'm thinking that I shouldn't do this, but instead use a version control system and check them in/out from an external hosting repository (Google Code, SourceForge, etc). I see several benefits here - first, I don't have to worry about losing my code if my computer crashes and burns or my external HDD crashes and burns; second, I can share my code with the world and perhaps even get more help when I need it.

Is this a good idea? If so, what are some other project hosts that I should investigate (other than Google Code and SourceForge)?

Answer 1

Assembla is awesome.

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EDIT: Yes, this is a good idea - I used to use a personal copy of Vault and found it was more than I cared to manage (in case my server went down or hard drive crashed - not only was it painful to worry about losing and backing up data, but the downtime). Of course, it doesn't hurt to have your own backup as well. Cover all your bases!

Answer 2

After losing some freelance work to a hard drive crash, I've become keen on the philosophy that "It doesn't exist until its in source control". As I don't want to necessarily share the source for my projects with the rest of the world, I pay for webhosting (using Dreamhost who have great deals on basic shared hosting and easy one-click installs for things like subversion) and store my data that way. They don't claim to be any sort of backup service, but all I really want is a second copy offsite somewhere.

If I do decide to share the code I can always make it public later. Do note that sourceforge does not allow private/personal projects, and Google Code forces you to license your code using an open source license. Both have some limitations on the number of projects you can create (and aren't really intended to store everybody and their brother's personal projects).

Assembla looks pretty slick although it is hard to tell what all you get for free. I'm definitely going to try it out.

There is an extensive list at wikipedia.