running my own web server (not Apache, etc.)

I have a custom server on a linode, not a web server, actually a java chat server with an open port. It runs great on a linode.

You can very easily disable apache or anything else, you really have a huge amount of control on a linode. From a configuration point of view, it's practically the same as having a dedicated server of your own, and the internet connection is really good for the price.

The only thing, of course, is you would need to be sure your custom server program can compile for linux on an x86.

You can do almost anything you want inside your Linode. Most definitely you can dump apache and run your own web server. Personally, I run thttpd since it's nice and small and does what I want :-)

Well, I don't know about the other Linux images available, but the Gentoo image doesn't even have a webserver or anything installed except the basics allowing you to just install what your going to use only. I'm pretty sure the others are setup that way as well.

Thank you for all the quick responses.

My account has now been activated, and my web server works just fine on my Linode 64 account!