Hosting options

[Rob McCauley]

Hi, everyone.

I'd like to have a box of my very own out on the net somewhere.  I have
some specific services I want on it (www, ssh), but generally speaking, I
want to have free rein to make it do whatever I'd like.  I think that
gets me to shared hosting options or colo.  I haven't ruled out business
class cable entirely, but I'm not entirely happy with residential service,
so I'm a bit prejudiced against it.

I'm looking for recommendations.

Must be linux or openbsd.

I'd rather it be geographically nearby.  Not critical, but nice.

Having root access is firm requirement.

Bandwidth is an unknown.  Some of the things I'd like to do may use a lot,
so affordable growth options are good.

Inexpensive is, of course, good.

If you have personal experience of such a provider, work for one, know of
one, etc, please let me know.  I know they're out there, but in such
quantity that sifting through them without prior knowledge of who is good
and who is not is painful.

Thanks!

Rob