Even pg was in Providence for a while in the early 90's, in the painting program at RISD. I think it's gotten a lot more "wicked funnier" for startups since then!
I <3 PVD. It's a great place to live and work. Affordable living, excellent bars and restaurants, tech and design energy from Brown and RISD, and an active and vibrant geek community (http://www.flickr.com/groups/providencegeeks/). It's really a great place to live.
I've been amazed how supportive the start-up ecosystem in Providence has been to us newcomers. This is really a phenomenal place to run a start-up and anybody considering launching their company in the northeast should give Providence a close look!
I moved from Philly. Providence keeps surprising me--good energy, nascent but strong start-up community and a solid core of peeps driving it forward. pretty irreverant place, too, which i love.
Zuck said he'd stay in Boston if he were starting Facebook today. Personally, I'd move to Providence and hop on the Providence/Stoughton Line whenever I needed to be in Boston. :)