I don't know what shared hosting is
I don't know what AFAIK means or what "fully managed" means.
My hardware (computer?) is fine, it's an iMac
dreamhost give me a shell? again,, what???? is that from the Ocean (bad joke)
I have a mail program (MAIL allready on my mac)
I do know know what a "managed didicated server" is.... but if that means someone else does my website.. I'd rather do it myself,, it's not that complicated.

Dreamhost has also not been down that much,, I'm happy with dreamhost,, just not their customer service, it's illogical and not efficient.