That being said, Linode gives you access to as many cores as available on the host. In my case, I have 8 cores available, while DO restricts the number of cores available to guests based on plans (starting at 1 core).
Another thing to consider is: If your jobs are typically CPU-limited, it's probably not best to use virtual hosting at all. Dedicated machines would be far more economical for you.
Anyway, it's nice to see linode finally come down in their price point, thank goodness for competition, they're obviously responding to DO with this move. Unfortunately the $5 DO is good enough for me [SSD makes is so that swap time is less painful if I temporarily max out the RAM] so, alas, will be sticking with DO for now :|
[1] https://www.linode.com/pricing
[2] https://blog.linode.com/2013/03/18/linode-nextgen-the-hardwa...
[3] http://ark.intel.com/products/75277/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-...