Various information on virtual private server hosting

I've been looking at various hosting solutions lately, trying to find a good place to host a Unix server that I can play with. There are a variety of hosting types:

• VPS - virtual private server; you have complete control over it with root access for installing software or destroying system. Runs $20-$70/month depending on options.
• Basic hosting - a shared hosted platform designed for hosting standard web apps, sometimes with shell access. Costs starting at $5/month.
• Cloud hosting - kind of like VPS, but much more dynamic. Includes ability to create/destroy server instances quickly. Pay a-la-carte for cpu, bandwidth, and storage uses.

A few sites that look interesting:

• Amazon EC2 - true 'cloud' hosting. You can get a basic instance going for about $60/month and it has a lot of flexibility for expansion and more-or-less infinite storage and computing capabilities. You can also clone instances on a per-hour charge to start and stop as many servers as you want easily. Minimum server size is 1.7GB RAM, which is big. Disk persistence is kind of strange -- when the server shuts down, it looses all storage unless you do something specific with storage.
• slicehost.com - good Linux (or windows) hosting for $20-$70/month.
• vpsland.com - another suggested Linux/Windows hosting site for $20-60/month.
• http://www.lunarpages.com/basic-hosting/ - another, suggested by Robert. $27 for 256/10/500 service.
• rackspace.com - similar to EC2, allows you to create cloud server instances. Starts at $11/mo for 256/10/xx server. (Seems REALLY cheap.)

Given everything, rackspace.com looks like a damn good option. Need to investigate a little further.