[dskrepps]

Is it important that they're losing the branding of the $5 droplet? It seems that's significantly more of an impressionable number than 4 or 6, in my understanding of the factors that made them popular. To me they've simply lost the #1 thing that people remember them by and don't stand out with that simple change. That's the only change that worries me.

[jedimastert]

I think the $5 thing was a direct answer to Linode's offerings?

[Macha]

I thought Linode's "Nanode" ($5 VM) was several years after DO. I remember wishing Linode had a lower tier option and contemplating moving to DO back when Linode started at $20 for their lowest spec.

[treesknees]

I went back to check and indeed my annual billing for Linode's lowest tier was was $216 annually (12 * $20 * 0.90 for the 10% annual payment discount.)

Linode then dropped the price in 2014 to $10/month [1], and eventually in 2017 introduced the $5 option [2]. DO was definitely around well before then, but I do recall DO becoming more popular around that time. Because for $5 it was awesome to spin up a VM to test a new app.

[1] https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/11th-linode-birthday-10-l...

[2] https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/high-memory-instances-and...

[Brian-Puccio]

That’s my memory, too. Linode for a long time didn’t have a product at that very low price point.

[apple4ever]

That is right. I looked at both and since DO had the $5 VM and Linode didn't, I went with DO.