Ask HN: VPS - Where should I go?

I am looking for a good VPS (Virtual Private Server). I just tried 1and1.com's 3 month money back VPS II - and found it to be slow, unresponsive (SSH / WWW connections literally took seconds).

Can someone recommend a good place for a VPS that would give me a quick and responsive server? Something I can run ubuntu on, manage security and updates.