Im using dreamhost and Im can honestly say I'm a happy customer. The control panel is easy, you get plenty of space & bandwidth and it's cheap. What more do you need? BTW, I don't have any highly trafficed sites with them, only sites with less than 2000 unique users a day.
People have different points about it but I've heard some negative feedbacks about them.You can know more about at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/
Personally, I do not like them (I dont like any host who oversells bandwidth / space). Just do your research at http://www.webhostingtalk.com and http://www.webhostingjury.com/
Before I got into hosting myself, I was with them, they caused many problems and sometimes the site would be down for around 8 hours at day. They did resolve the problems, but outages were common. I wouldnt go back there again, but like many things in life, everyone has to do it once.
I've heard some negative comments about them as well. I've actually found some great success with a really small host. He runs his hosting off of a forum. Don't normally plug his site, but you can see it at: MafiaStation.
use the 9999 promo code to get $99.99 off your plan get the cheapest one and pay for a year then you will get 1 year hosting for <$20