How much CPU can we really use?

I've been a customer of Linode for nearly 5 years. In this time I was always the impression that users are free to use as much CPU as they'd like (subject to the number of cores and priority advertised in the chosen plan).

As I have posted in another obscure thread, I was recently surprised to find out that this doesn't seem to be the case any longer after getting this curt abuse ticket opened on me:

> Hello,

Your Linode is consuming an excessive amount of CPU resources which is negatively impacting your neighbors.

Please take appropriate steps to reduce your CPU usage, and update us once you have done so.

Regards,

Don't get me wrong, I do understand that VPS hosting means you're sharing CPU with others. My complaints here are simply:

1- The $20 plan advertises "8 CPU (1x priority)", which implies you're free to use those 8 cores at a certain priority level. This is contradicted by hidden and intransparent restrictions that leave me with a high degree of uncertainty as to what I can use my linode for.

2- As far as I know, in previous forum discussions on CPU usage, no linode employee has ever talked about restrictions or corrected statements from multiple people that high CPU usage is indeed OK.

If possible I want a clarification on this from linode, and it would also be nice to see if others have gotten similar tickets to mine or received further clarifications from linode.