Obviously anecdotal evidence isn't much evidence at all, but I'll add my 2c CAD.

I have heard of, and had, both positive and negative experiences with Apple support. Almost all of my support issues have been at Apple Authorized Service Providers or Apple directly as we don't have an Apple store within anything close to a reasonable distance (the closest AASP was 6 hours away). But I've been fortunate to always be able to get things resolved with a few calls to Apple. And in the process I've managed to help get 2 substandard AASPs lose their status.

In one case, we had an out of warranty white Macbook about 2 years ago with the cracked case that was on recall. We brought it to the AASP, they replaced the case, but in so doing they damaged the trackpad. They refused to acknowledge it. I called Apple, they had had other complaints with these guys before (which they admitted!), they called the store as I was there and got my trackpad replaced. Next month they were no longer an AASP.

In a second case we bought a MBP off eBay with a dead logic board. I had researched the model and knew there was a well known issue with the GPU that caused this problem, and it was under recall. I got it, verified the issue with Apple's Hardware Diagnostics, and after talking to them on the phone I shipped it to the AASP for replacement. The AASP called us up to tell us that the hard drive was dead (confirmed by their propriety HD test suite, which was their primary business) and that we needed a replacement. I knew there wasn't a problem as I had tested it myself before shipping it off, so I told them just to ship it back. When I got it back it was rattling like crazy as they had left drive mounting parts out. I photographed it and sent it off to Apple. They called and apologized, shipped replacement parts, and a few months later when I checked the second shop had their AASP status pulled.

So I guess the moral of my story is that there are lots of guys in the service depts that are dishonest and/or inept, but Apple has always been good to me when I've dealt with them. That being said, their service quality does seem to be getting worse as now they no longer offer mail-in repair service up here like they used to one time, and if your new Mac has a manufacturing defect they won't just ship it back and replace it like they used to unless you're within the 1 week grace period of a new purchase. Instead, you have to bring it to an Apple store, which obviously isn't ideal.

I'll add to the dozens already recommending Linode. As the parent says they don't over-sell their service, unlike most fly-by-night $5 operations. They're reliable, and they've been around for a long time and likely will continue.

Plus, they really go out of their way to help their customers. A year or so ago they upgraded the memory allotment of all their packages (including the low end ones) by more than 40% for free. They let you switch plans on the fly, or add extras (like increased bandwidth, or specs, as req'd) for modest fees. They don't screw you over with overage costs. Plus they don't try to sell you service that you don't need. When I was first shopping around for a few sites I wanted to host they recommended the base plan and said "see if you need more - if you do you can always add on". I really appreciated that (and I didn't need extra for quite a while!)

Plus their linode library is kept pretty up to date and is filled with info on just about all the topics you'll need on setup and managing of your system. I referenced it the other day when setting up mod_security on a new Debian install and it was perfect.

Stack Overflow used GoDaddy?? WTF?

While I find these "practitioners" who prey on the sick and desperate disgusting, sometimes I have a hard time empathizing with the "patients" who seem to want to deceive themselves.

Case-in-point: Recently I heard the sister of a man who's dying with colorectal cancer, which has since spread to his lungs and kidneys, because of his (and his family's) firm belief in "alternative" medicine and paranoid distrust of doctors, that "the treatment is working, it's just not working fast enough".

More users =/= better support.

In my experience, FreeBSD's support is bar none.

Besides the fact that many of the machines listed are not feasible and/or are next to useless (a mill, lathe, drill, and cold saw in one machine?!? Did they even ask themselves why such a machine isn't in use today?) it's preposterous to suggest that all these machines are "required to build and maintain a small, sustainable civilization". Civilization managed just fine for millennia before most, if not all, of these items even existed.

GVCS sounds like something from the mind of an overly eager 1st year engineering student.

Likely his actual reason was that he was told not to allow it by his manager or boss. It's common, especially with larger chains, not to allow photographs of their setups for very reasonable reasons. One very simple reason is that some store managers or those under them may screw up a display in a way that makes it offensive or otherwise humiliating to the corporation at large. If an image were to get out it would reflect badly on them. Just look at failblog and similar sites and you'll see lots of examples of this problem cropping up. Walmart, in particular, has very strict rules to avoid this happening (as well as for reasons of competition), and many smaller chains have adopted the same "no camera" stance just because they do it.

I run a few sites with equal or slightly larger audiences as the questioner. My servers are evenly split between Ubuntu server and Debian. A few things to note:

1. Don't be afraid to go headless and learn the bit of shell commands you'll need to know. You'll need them at some point anyway. Besides, most web-based packages you'll be using these days can be administered with either a web-based interface or an administration app. eg. For administering sql servers I use Sequel Pro on my Mac and connect over an ssh connection. Also definitely look into installing Webmin http://www.webmin.com/ - it definitely eases admin responsibilities.

2. Debian-based distros are all easy to find help for. As the parent mentioned Ubuntu has some of the best support out there, but even if you choose Debian 99% of what you'll find on Ubuntu-specific forums will apply. LTS Ubuntu server is rock-solid, easily as stable IME as Debian. And although my desktop systems have switched to Deb lately due to the recent odd GUI-related decisions of Canonical, these issues haven't spread to the base distro.

3. Administering any system is a learning process. If someone tells you that it's problem-free if you use X and Y they're lying. Expect a bit of a learning curve.

the pain-staking task

I know some people take offence to corrections like this but I hope it's taken in the spirit in which it was intended, which is to say in the spirit of learning...

It's painstaking as in pains taking, or accepting/taking on pain. Not staking pain in the heart like a vampire.

At least some of the people working on decrypting these "messages" are interested in it for the challenge. They're not deluded into thinking the answer will have any real significance.

And IMO their work no more glorifies this guy's violence than the scientist's who worked on Joe Jernigan's body for the Visible Human Project glorified his murder.

Please stop spouting this bullshit - you can do whatever the hell you want with your iPad. Just don't expect Apple support. Just like *gasp* automakers will drop support/warranty if you decide you want to add a turbo.

That's about how long it took me with Unity before I gave it the boot too!

It's ironic that by calling for action against what they judge to be violent entertainment these ones are, in fact, imitating the behaviour of the suspected perpetrator. Sure, their actions haven't risen to the point of violence against others, but their actions come from the same preconception: That their judgments of the beliefs, motives and actions of others are infallible and that they have the right to then force their opinions on others.

The only difference I see is that they seek to use the law to enforce their will, and the suspect had no hope of influencing government to act on his behalf and so took matters into his own hands.

I personally don't like violent video games or other violent entertainment for myself. But I don't assume that those who do, especially when we're dealing with pretend like in video games, are necessarily going to be violent or "evil" persons themselves.

However, someone who takes issue with the fact that it was a person of their nationality that was targeted does scare me as it reveals to me that they (1) don't understand that it's not real and (2) they don't have an issue with one of them being killed.

No way! At 15 he hadn't even left Gallifrey and he hadn't stolen a TARDIS of his own! I personally wouldn't trust a Doctor Who until he's at least the age of 400.