I've used these and Beaglebone Blacks and I would say the BBB is slightly superior, but both are pretty disappointing. My user level is professional, so my demands may not be yours.

Supporting the Ubuntu ARM distribution makes development of complex projects on the BBB a lot easier. I currently use a BBB as an internal Samba server, an external web server, and a python development platform. I tried using it to drive a photo display, but the HDMI only supports 16-bit color, not 24-bit color. The CPU can handle it, but wow the peripheral support is awful. USB mass storage is also very slow. Using the onboard microSD is slightly better.

The RPIs do have decent USB performance but I have burned two of them doing large file transfers. It's apparently just too much work for that outdated single-core ARMv6 to move GBs from Ethernet to USB. You get what you pay for with these creatures; it's fine for messing around, but not for any next-level trout.

I will upgrade my BBB at some point to these lovely boards by Boundary Devices. https://boundarydevices.com/product/...cortex-a9-sbc/

They are a lot more coin but the Freescale iMX6 chip (esp the quad-core... woo!) is totally worth it. I know its kernel more than I care to admit, but it's developed openly and pretty robust. You could make a smartphone with this thing - Android & Ubuntu are well supported. I've designed two boards around this guy and give it a strong recommendation.

edit: I may also go a step further and get an Intel NUC. That thing should be able to do everything listed so far in this thread, simultaneously. But of course you need $500.