My biggest fear is that some horrible company like Go Daddy will buy out Linode to get the technology and software, then ruin the company.

Ouch...

No problem - customers can kill a business and I don't know what sort of support makes sense for Linode. I was merely pointing out an area of pain and one person's pain is another person's opportunity.

Unmanaged and unfettered.

One thing this site could use is slashdot style moderation so I could mod the above comment +5 insightful.

Other than that the site is perfectly functional and any changes should be small and incremental. Any big redesign would cause more trouble than its worth.

Web 2.0 can't be described because it doesn't exist. It's marketing fluff and nothing more.

Does the phrase 'the emperor's new clothes' mean anything?

Hey Everyone

Well, I just heard about and signed-up with Linode yesterday, so the reasons for that decision are fresh in my mind. I can say for sure that the website was a big part of why I signed up. It was simple, easy and to the point. It conveyed a friendly personality, as if there were reasonable human beings on the other side of the site; that's rare for a web-host.

That being said, I tend to find that things are constantly changing whether anyone likes it or not; you can stay on the ball and direct those changes for the better or relinquish control. So, I'm always in favor of well-designed changes.

Anyway, I had some down time last night - registered a domain that wasn't going to get activated until morning - so I decided it would be fun to take a shot at a mock-up for slightly next-gen Linode. Certainly could still use some work, but here's rough draft #1: http://www.tumbledesign.com/wip/linode_mockup.jpg

Enjoy

-Nicky

Wow, I like that! A definite good start, IMO.

Nice mockup, I assume the top links expand or something when you click on them like they kinda do with the dropped sub-menus. Looks pretty cool.

Sure, you may like may like to keep linode exclusive to those you consider your "peers", i get how noob questions may offend you. In the end though linode is in a competitive business. There is no room for a business that does not grow its customer base. Even if they rent out enough linodes now to be in the black, they can't just go on with out expanding their customer base. When those noobs go to their competitors, the other vps providers will grow stronger and more powerful. The noobs will refer more noobs, the revenues and resources of the competitors will grow, their staff and support will expand, they will have large marketing budgets and then linode will really struggle to find new subscribers. The old loyal customers will die off and then where will we be? anyway, i didn't need to go into even this much detail, but we can see the linode staff is starting to think about marketing again, and if they want to broaden their target audience then usability is one of the things they can work on. Simple things like embedding help files into the linode configuration manager or distro wizard would go a long way. Also, like the user above suggested, a brief "getting started" guide is good.

I know we have the wiki and support forums, and these are great, but something with a more official feel would give the noobs a more warm and fuzzy.

I don't think anybody's offended by noob questions, just worried that Linode might morph into something that doesn't fit our needs.

Managed hosting = hosting for noobs
Unmanaged hosting = hosting for people who know what they're doing, OR noobs who are willing to spend a little time experimenting, reading, etc.

Are you saying that nobody can be in the business of unmanaged hosting? It seems that the two types have been coexisting for quite some time. And Linode is unmanaged hosting.

Support is costly. Noobs cost money. Somehow that has to be paid for, and that cost is passed onto customers through either charging per incident for each support ticket or raising the overall price.

Linode is a small company. They probably can't compete with the larger players if they try to be a jack-of-all trades. I think they are striking a right balance here. What other hosting company out there exists where you can hop onto IRC and talk to the principals of the company? If you need tech suppor at other hosting companies, start out at tier 1 through some drone in India, then work your way up through escalation and aggravation until you either give up or eventually get through to someone who can help you.

No thanks.

Linode has filled a needed niche.

I for one do not wish Linode to become a "GoDaddy" or "Bluehost" ( :puke: ).

The power and flexibility offered comes with responsibility on the customers end. You diminish the power and flexibility once you have "Wizards" that do everything for you.

At work I once had a customer who bitched at me that he couldn't believe my company called our devices "Enterprise" equipment because it didn't have "Wizards" that did everything for you.

People who desire/want the power and flexibility need to learn how to do it. If they want "Ease of Use" they're going to have sacrifice something ya know. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

_________________

Where "Thought Crime" is commited
http://www.rejecttheherd.net

I have a request for the content:

Bring back the network information that linode.com used to have. (http://web.archive.org/web/20060103054613/www.linode.com/products/network.cfm)

The only reason not to have this information is if it changes too often (kind of doubtful) or if it provides no value and just confuses users. Most linode users are nerds, and nerds like having this information.

Also, you should provide test IPs/files on the web site to help people choose which datacenter would be best for them. I know there is a forum post with this data, but not everyone is going to spend the time digging around the forum to find it.

I'm not saying that Linode needs to change their business plan, I like whats going on here, i think we all do. My point is just that it is very rare that a business can survive if it doesn't grow, and with minimal investment linode can make unmanaged hosting a less intimidating experience to noobs.