> The guys who offer a much better service (in almost every way)
If you need a few small VPSs to play around and test things out, and are fine with the (very) occasional performance / bandwidth degradation, I don't see how Linode offers you a "much better service", at least in terms of cost.
I have a Linode VPS for production, but find myself often spinning up and tearing down DO VPSs for experimentation.
Same here. I still have a $20 Linode for production, but wanting play around and test things out without thinking too much about cost is the reason I also frequently spin up 1-2 DO VPS's.
Similar story here - signed up for DO after coming across a couple of really helpful articles.
For me, the articles show
1) They're competent. If they're experts at solving all these random problems in managing a Linux server, they probably also know how to run a reliable, high-performant VPS.
2) They care about their customers. They're going the extra mile to help customers (and potential customers) solve their actual day-to-day problems. This is a good sign.
Haven't yet had an actual problem that required me to contact their support (which hints at #1), but it's the impression I (and probably many others) got from the articles.
Not sure why parent is being downvoted. I personally know several rich (corrupt?) people from China who have bought or are actively shopping for homes here in the SF bay area. They still work & live in China, but from what they've told me, their goal is to
1) Buy a house for their kids studying in the US;
2) Launder their money;
3) Own a property outside of China as an investment;
4) Have a safe house in case they need to flee the country.
The bay area is a popular choice for such people due to the high concentration of Chinese immigrants / Chinese Americans already living here.
I'm not passing judgement, just presenting facts from personal experience.
Yeah, I don't know why I was downvoted too... I was speaking from personal experience also. I happened to be friends with a realtor, and he would tell me about the crazy bids he was getting from China. A property in Pacific Heights got 2 Chinese bidders in a bidding war, both buying it sight-unseen, all cash, from China. Crazy times.
And I have friends in the Peninsula who have such crashpads in the City (unfortunately, I didn't win the IPO lottery like they did).
So I'm not blaming "furriners" or "1%", just stating what my limited experience has been.
> ...is available as open source, and is supported by Microsoft on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.
Somehow, the words Microsoft, support and Linux still don't seem to sound right in the same sentence.
I'd been your stereotypical Linux fanboy and MS hater since a teenager. But today I'm totally awed by how radically Microsoft has managed to change itself. I can't even imagine how hard the people inside Microsoft must have fought to make this happen. Well done, guys.
If you need a few small VPSs to play around and test things out, and are fine with the (very) occasional performance / bandwidth degradation, I don't see how Linode offers you a "much better service", at least in terms of cost.
I have a Linode VPS for production, but find myself often spinning up and tearing down DO VPSs for experimentation.