Raspberry Pi is not the only kid on the block. Intel recently announced their latest Minnowboard and of course there's the beagleboard that seems to have been around for some time, too. I considered some of these, but the Raspberry Pi had the most appeal for its low cost and relatively large following. Some of the other embedded systems are probably great for more serious applications, like creating your own commercial DVR or something, but I was only interested as a hobbyist.

My Raspberry Pi is not here yet. Current status: "Out for delivery"