The main advantage of a BeagleBoard over a Mini-ITX system is significantly lower power consumption. The entire BB can run on a single USB port (5V 500ma). Otherwise, cell phones would be running Intel and AMD processors.
The only thing I dislike about the beagle board is that the generation 1 had a faulty USB interface. Also the Serial Connection is a 9 pin. I'd rather they just let me use a standard ft cable.
=/ Arm units are definitely cool. Look at the maple leaf, and other Arm 3 based units. Very very cheap stuff. Very very powerful.
Arm is definitely seizing control of the embedded device market, and linux with it.
The USB interface still has issues. They've supposedly fixed them in rev. C4, but I have a C3. My main concern apart from the USB stuff is being able to buy enough units in quantity, with a reasonable turnaround time, if the BB (or any other hobby board) is used in a design.
