Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello,
My friend is after setting up a website + other stuff. His requirements are, in order of importance:

* A domain name.
* A unix shell of some sorts. Especially one we can install crap to, like CVS and Ruby (:luv:). Also, multiple logins over ssh and so on is a big plus.
* Decent drive space
* Decent bandwidth
* Hippy ethics. As in, he's not after hosting child porn or mp3zgalore, but if he wants to do a Rev and host free GridWarz ripoffs that lawyers get pissy about and such, the hosting company won't be phased by a few "Cease and Desists" that are completely not legally sound.

As such he's probably after a server hosting company based in the deepest of China, rather than a boggy standard "webhost". But there again I don't really have a clue. Who is nice, BETEO? What sort of 'solutions' are we looking at here? Can anyone recommend anything that will fix his needs?

ta,
xx

Sounds like he needs a virtual server to me. It's always nicer to have your own, but virtual is much cheaper.
Option-wise, there are hundreds - Rackspace are one of the best, and will deal any problems you have with lightning speed for about £100 a month. Or, if you're happy setting everything up, the cheapest 1&1 VS is only £15 a month. Better still, find some extra cash and 1&1 will give you your own box on the web for £29.99 a month.

What Grim said. I don't know any resellers that would give you a shell 'where you can install whatever shit you like', that might possibly include illegal stuff

I have read good reports of CheapVPS on WebHostingTalk, although they seem too cheap to be true to me.

Yes... Why is that so cheap?
And yes Grim, virtual is definatley the way to go. I thankyou for the extra bit of terminology that I can now google for.
When 1&1 say "root access", what does that entail? Is it as if I had root to any normal unix account? ie We could happily slap things in /usr/blah and tinker with /etc and so on, or are there restrictions?

Well, partly it's because they operate that brand strictly as a no-support just-Unix-shell firm. They have another brand, a2b2, who offer support contracts etc. Still, they do seem really very cheap (edit) particularly with this double RAM/disk/bandwidth offer.

How crazy is the junk you need installing? Wouldn't most hosts have ruby / CVS already? They're hardly unheard of exotic thingymys.