sdkaufman78

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.

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.

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.

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.

I think I'll pick up a C# book for Christmas.

I am reminded of Linus's announcement of Linux:

I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as they say.