Fast, stable and feature-rich
I've been using Linode.com as a VPS provider for just under two years and it is difficult to describe just how happy I am with their service.
Linodes are fast and stable. With up-to-date Linux distro offerings (even for the lesser-spotted ones) and amazing resource upgrades, Linode beats the pants off of any other VPS provider.
With excellent connectivity and disk redundancy, I dare say that a Linode VPS is even better than a dedicated stand-alone server because you get access to substantial processing power, highly cached file systems, console access and automatic restarts with their "Lassie watchdog" (not that I have ever needed Lassie).
If you want to be root@your-own-server, Linode offers the absolute best value for money without compromising on quality or stability.
–deckert