I've been using a Linode 64 system on host5 since early September. I use it as the primary name server for my domains, secondary name server for some friends' domains (a little over a dozen, total), mail hub for my domains and my UUCP network, backup mail server for friends, web server (not currently hosting much), and high-reliability irc client platform. In this role as primarily an infrastructure server, the Linode 64 package performs beautifully, and I have one story in particular to relate...

About a week after I set up dorothy.movealong.org, I received a cry for help on my local LUG mailing list. He had recently begun hosting a friend's domain after her old host terminated her contract. Basically, she was the victim of a joejob and the old host could neither determine this fact nor handle the load. She turned to her friend who contacted my LUG when he couldn't handle the load either. He had no backup mail servers for the domain and I offered to supply both my Linode and my home server (on a 1.5M/768K ADSL) as backups. Together, the three servers were able to handle the load. My Linode, in particular, was handling well over 150,000 SMTP connections per day at the peak of the DoS, and was still performing its normal mail functions perfectly. Ultimately, the domain had to be shut down anyway, because the attack never stopped.

For the future, I have plans to move my web mail, dynamic dns, and most of my web domains to my Linode, and also use it as a directory and file server for domain logons using a customized version of the LNX-BBC live CD.

I have been very pleased with the Linode service. Long live Linode!