I'm sort of mixed. On one hand, you're right: it's a little ridiculous that users who are known to be affected wouldn't be alerted in advance.
On the other hand, it is great that Linode had alerts posted on the status blog in advance, and worthy of note that every host will have downtime. Having a backup solution in place should be a responsibility that lies in the hands of the customer, but you're right: without verified notification it's a little hard to plan ahead.
I have to say though, having switched to Linode from a more crowded, oversold host (BurstNET), the difference is amazing.
