[mdlug] Questions about Hosting services

[Mathew May]

Hey gang,

Does anyone have any experience with Dreamhost (dreamhost.com) and
DigitalOcean for hosting?

I am looking to try a new project to further my education a bit and have
been recommended both sites from a few people that I know.  I am looking to
build / maintain a server from the ground up in an environment that is a
little forgiving so I don't get hacked to hell and back until I can get
some more knowledge under my belt.

>From what I have read so far on each service, it sounds like Dreamhost is
basically only hosting my web site/application whereas DigitalOcean gives
me a VM and I take care of the entire thing.

I don't have a ton of experience with firewalls or security, but I do like
the idea of having total control over the server, and not just my
application.

Anyone have any thoughts or lessons learned that they would like to share?

Thanks,
Mat