I was thinking about getting a dedicated server (I may need the extra power that a VPS can't provide) from The Planet but I don't know to much about how you would operate one. I have experience in setting up multiple VPS's on Linode and Slicehost, I just select my OS in their CP and connect via SSH in putty and do my thing. Is it the same with dedicated servers (just chose you OS from the CP and connect via SSH and put on whatever crap you want)?
SnapOverflow
Having a remote dedicated server is essentially no different from having a remote VPS. Specifically how you go about ordering it and how they provision it will be different for each provider, but once it's deployed it will be managed the same way from your point of view. Whether the OS is running on physical hardware directly or within a virtualized environment won't make much difference from the perspective of a remote connection (be it SSH or remote desktop). There may be minor differences in things like network interface device names though, but the system itself should run and be managed in the same way as a VPS would.
Other things to note, if you need upgrades down the road (more memory, more disk storage, etc.) they may have to take the server down to physically install new hardware. With a virtual server, they can usually allocate additional resources either in real time or with a simple reboot of the VPS. Physical hardware takes longer to upgrade, so if you expect to need additional resources, plan for slightly longer downtime.
Expect reboots to take a little longer as well. Tthe physical server will likely have a longer POST process and hardware boot processes (RAID controllers and the like) which a VPS doesn't have to wait for when rebooting.
Also, depending on the provider, the way you request a system restart (outside of the OS) may be different or unavailable. Some will allow you to control the outlets that the server is plugged into, some give you remote KVM, others don't, check with your provider on how you can recover from a failed restart).
Yes it's the same. I use slicehost's VPS's, Serverbeach's dedicated servers and I also have a cluster of 20 physical Dell 2950 and 1950 servers at a hosting facility where I lease a rack. I run Ubuntu and CentOS. They're all very similar to operate. You SSH in, do your thing and sign out.
The only difference is my colo facility where I own the physical machines. I'm responsible for racking them and the guys on site replace hard drives for me if anything breaks. But other than that you can move your knowledge from a VPS environment to leased server to colocation and back again very easily.
Most dedicated server environment's where you aren't managing the hardware yourself are very similar to VPS's in terms of build process and rebooting etc.
Good luck