I <3 Linode

Normally I wouldn’t do this sort of endorsement… but this is different! No, really, it is!

If you didn’t know already, Linode (www.linode.com) is a web hosting provider. That said, they aren’t your run-of-the-mill shared hosting provider that plops you on a machine with hundreds or thousands of other users, with some cool-at-first-but-ultimately-limiting ‘control panel’ junk like cPanel; no, they are way cooler than that! Linode.com is a true virtual hosting provider (not to be confused with the garden variety aforementioned ‘shared’ hosting providers). They give you an actual virtualized environment to do with as you please, on a machine with with a very small amount of other users. What you end up with is virtually (pun intended) the exact same thing as if you leased a dedicated machine running in a state-of-the-art data-center, but for a small fraction of the price! You install the OS and you configure it to you’re liking. For example, you can set up a lean & mean Debian server with only the daemons you really need, or run Red Hat with cPanel if that’s your thing,. And another great feature, they don’t even offer Microsoft(TM)(C)(R) Windows(TM)(C)(R) server as an option! ;P

More to the point, and why I am taking the time to plug Linode.com here; I am sincerely grateful to them! Since I’ve been a Linode.com customer there are three things in particular that have stood out in my mind that make Linode a big, deep, mortally wounding cut above the rest:

1) Their support forums and issue resolution are second to none! They are fast to respond when you need help, they don’t condescend you for asking questions, and they are genuinely friendly & concerned that you are satisfied with the resolution of a problem. I can’t overstate how important this is.

2) I was laid off a year or so ago, lost my house, etc., I am on one step above the smallest Linode plan available, out of sheer necessity. My financial situation has been a bit rocky, to say the least, and I don’t want to imply that they’ll let you slide on you’re bill every other month, or anything like that; but they’ve been amazing in working with me some months and helping to ensure my server didn’t see any downtime. This is not something you should expect from any for-profit business, but I am grateful for their kindness and flexibility.

3) Free upgrades! As I said before, I have a fairly modest Linode package, but in the few years since I’ve been a customer have seen my available processor cores double, from 4 to 8 cores! On top of that, they recently gave me a customer loyalty RAM upgrade! I now have twice the RAM I’m paying for in my Linode plan! I run quite a bit of daemons on my server, and having only a gig of memory had been a real pain and a challenge while running a web-server, database engine, mail server and at least a dozen other services (I do a lot more than LinuxLusers.com with my Linode). The free upgrades are more than just icing on the cake for me; they have given me the breathing room I needed for the robust server setup I’ve always wanted.

I highly recommend these guys if you’re looking for a virtual hosting provider. Friendly people who care and a company that truly rewards your loyalty, and all on fast, reliable and cutting-edge infrastructure. What more could you ask for? Granted, if you need hand-holding when it comes to server administration, a virtual machine is not what you should be looking for with any company; but if you’re a savvy user that wants full control of you’re server, without the high cost of dedicated leasing, then Linode.com is #1 in my book (err… blog).

Thank you, Linode!

If you decide to sign up, or just want poke around their site to see what they have to offer, please use this link:
http://www.linode.com/?r=13820c7ceaa8656e1e67598c80ac8ee4326ea9a1
It could help shave a few bucks off my monthly bill! This is not what motivated this post though, please understand that! If so, I would have thrown together some plug article a year or more ago. I just want to thank Linode for all they’ve done for me, and for being an exceptional hosting provider, with a nice write-up here. …And since I was posting a link anyways, why not a referral link? :)