When should you start being Open Source?

Question

First of all this question is not intended to be a "subjective question".

The actual specific question might be if being closed source (in web development for example) is a good protection measure.

It was this article that got me thinking: http://techcrunch.com/2007/08/11/facebook-source-code-leaked/

Lets say you are quite a newbie to programming, but want to share the little you´ve got. Is it safe to give out you full source code?

Wouldn´t this be a detailed instruction manual on how to hack my site?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

If you are a newbie, you should share everything. Because people will no use it, rather they will help you to get experienced faster ;)

If you are an oldbie, and you have enough money gathered for rest of your life already, you can share everything, too.

And if you are like me, share the knowledge, not the code. As code will feed you. But you can share things which will help the general people. Business+Social work is a good trade-off.

Answer 2

Coincidentally i was asking me the same thing lately and here are 2 good resources i've found:

http://www.e-gineer.com/v1/articles/should-i-open-source.htm

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/1176439/The-real-reasons-vendors-are-moving-to-open-source-models