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> it was a product that looked remarkably similar to ours As a developer, DO never looked anything like it. Linode was expensive and on the same playfield as R

• shiftpgdn 6y ago
  Lol, what? DO was basically a page for page copy of linode's site and product offering in 2011-2013.
  • disgrunt 6y ago
    They were both modeled after services like Slicehost I believe.
    • yte15 6y ago
      Negative. Slicehost launched in the middle of Linode pivoting virtualization stacks after proving out the business and running into limitations of their first stack (UML). Slicehost was ... 2006, if memory serves? Linode was a few years old by that point. For those keeping score, Linode then went to Xen and now KVM just like everyone else. Linode and Slicehost were very similar stories, though. Slicehost bootstrapped as well and was run by good people.
      • neom 6y ago
        You do know that Jason Seats, the founder of Slicehost, was pivotal in the DigitalOcean story also?
        • yte15 6y ago
          Yes. What’s your point?
  • 1shooner 6y ago
    I remember at that time feeling almost bad for Linode because they had built up so much valuable educational content about what you could run on their services, and I was using it step-by-step on DO. The only differentiator was the price. Of course DO quickly replicated and excelled in providing that tutorial value as well.
    • kchr 6y ago
      But were they really doing anything other than copy/pasting HOWTOs by Falko Timme?
• z92 6y ago
  Right! Linode was $20/month at least and more focused to businesses. Not the then unbelievable $5/month for SSH ssh accessible virtual box with root access that DO started. Plus the SSD. Other hosting providers later caught on with DO. But the thing I liked best was their "no hidden cost". You pay what you agreed before to pay. No surprise. No upsell, trick sell which were common with all hosting at that time. DO still maintains that honesty. Not sure what will happen after their IPO.
• lloeki 6y ago
  > As a developer, DO never looked anything like it. The UI, the simplicity, SSDs, additional block storage... but also the API and its doc, as well as IPv6, regions, snapshots/backups, and availability. Later on, load balancers, object storage and k8s. All of that much simpler than AWS and both better thought out and more featureful than Linode or OVH. DO truly deserved their success.
  • tasogare 6y ago
    I’m customer for years and I don’t use any of the features you mentioned past the first two; I’m part of the 5$ VM crowd for who this is the killer feature. Should OVH have provided on-demand instead of yearly plans for VPS I would have stayed there as I’ve my domains there already.
  • viro 6y ago
    The simper than AWS aspect was one of the main reasons I choose DO to do most of my cloud stuff. Also AWS had this odd habit of not auto charging me so it would go a couple months then I would get hit with multiple months worth of a bill.
  • riffic 6y ago
    The API is a key point many people miss when they think of early DigitalOcean as just another VPS host.
  • ksec 6y ago
    DO definitely had UI, SSD first. But Block Storage, Regions, Snapshots Backup and Load Balancer all were either first on Linode or being worked on for a long time. Linode also had Pooled Transfer and other tidbit for a long time well before DO. Remember we are talking about early days of DO. Of course later DO innovate more and Linode had to follow. And the new Linode UI is arguably better than DO. Although it did took them years to make it. The beauty of competition.
  • addicted 6y ago
    Before I ever paid DO a cent, I made significant use of a lot of their incredible documentation on setting up various servers, setting up your confide correctly, etc.
• jjav 6y ago
  > Their web UI also has always been miles ahead. I'd strongly disagree (been on DO since about 2012 and on Linode a few years earlier; I still use both). DO UI is ok these days but years ago Linode UI was far better in every way.