Considering a switch to Linode

Linode is an Unmanaged service so the staff aren't there to help you set up your LAMP stack, they keep the hardware and network running.

There is however an extensive library provided by the staff here http://library.linode.com/ with guides on how to set up LAMP stacks etc.

You can also find community support in the forums an IRC channel.

Many people here use Linode for what you want to so you wont have trouble finding support.

What he said.

When I moved from shared hosting I started with a managed service. It's 2x the cost of Linode, but I have that safety net. I started with them in 2007 and after the first 6-12 months or so I think the only tickets I've created with their support have related to issues within their network (things I thought were wrong with my VPS but that wasn't the case).

With a support desk you tend to get "ok, it's fixed." Here and in other forums, you usually get "look at X, Y, and Z", etc. - in other words, people won't fix your problem for you, but you'll probably end up understanding what went wrong, how to fix it yourself, and learn more in the process. I always visit forums first when I have an issue, and I don't find as much value in the managed services safety net. There are some insanely talented and helpful people here.

It depends how much you're willing to learn and tackle yourself, but from your post it sounds like you're sort of a perfect Linode customer. The VM is basically invisible to you; once you SSH into your Linode you might as well be working a headless box in your basement. I started my Linode as an experiment just to see what unmanaged was like, and I just keep using it more and more.

On another note which I forgot, Linode have a 7 day money back policy so you might as well spin up a 512mb node and if you don't like it in the first week you can get your 20 bucks back.

Also their billing system is awesome it pro-ratas your usage to the nearest whole day so you can add and remove linodes for just a day or so and not pay for the whole month.

Thanks for the responses. It's true that I've been hitting up against the limitations of either my shared hosting provider, the quality of their network or issues with their support because I can't fix things myself. I've been using shared hosting for about ten years with 1 and 1, Fasthosts and others and it's always been annoying.

Is there anything else I should read up on or be aware of before I take the plunge. It feels like on the face of it the $20 package would be enough to suit my immediate needs, but I'd like to know what I'm getting into beforehand.

@Gazimoff:

but I'd like to know what I'm getting into beforehand.

Joy.