Linode

yosemitesam pointed me to Linode a few days ago. Linode makes use of User Mode Linux, which allows many virtual Linux virtual machines on top of one actual Linux based machine. As far as a user of a virtual machine is concerned, they have an entire machine to themselves. Resources are limited per virtual machine, and CPU time is throttled for a minimum guaranteed use. Users can choose which Linux distribution they like, along with partitioning their disks, just like a real machine.

I plan to get their $19.95/mo account and try them out over Giftmas break. Since UML uses the Linux kernel for virtualization, I expect that there will be more CPU power to the virtual machines. I've used VMware for many years, and even on a dual PIV Xeon with 2GB of ram, 4 virtual machines bring the host machine to a crawl. Linode is claiming that 32 hosts can run on a dual processor Xeon with CPU time to spare.

I think that virtual machines are the way of the future for hosting. Most people don't use 100% of the machine's resources for their needs, and those few that do can just get normal machines to host from.