Here is one important conclusion up front. The Pi has 8 GPIO pins, the Beaglebone has 65. That is really all I need to know. Also, I am particularly charmed by the PRU on the Beaglebone.
I found the following article to be pretty good:
The above review is for the most part unbiased, but does bend over backwards at times to make the Pi look good. I certainly hope for example that they don't ship the Pi loose in a cardboard box without a static bag.My take is as follows:
| Beagle Bone Black | Raspberry Pi |
|---|---|
| $45.00 | $35.00 plus SD card |
| on board 2G flash | gotta buy an SD card |
| 1 Ghz ARM v7 | 700 Mhz ARM v6 |
| 65 GPIO pins | 8 GPIO pins |
To a certain extent your intended purpose should guide your decision. The GPIO pin count is a crucial factor for me. The Raspberry pi is probably a better choice if you want to connect a USB keyboard and a screen and use it as a little computer (something I never intend to do). The price is somewhat deceiving since to even use the Pi, you will need a flash card as well as a USB cable (and you will have to load your OS of choice on the flash card). The Beagle comes ready to go right out of the box. The processor speed is also not the whole story either, The BBB runs about twice as fast as the Pi because it uses the ARM v7 instruction set.
So, in short the Beagle is better for an embedded project, the PI is better for a baby computer for educational purposes.
The Pi seems to have more online information and a stronger following, but this may shift in time as people get excited about the BBB. The Pi was on the scene first.
Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org