The biggest problem for me with Raspberry Pi alternatives is the Linux support. Given the fact that getting mainline support is hard & long, I like the approach RPi has taken, to fork the kernel, add support for most parts of the SoC, upstream it and rebase the fork regularly. And I can still use my RPi model B with the latest OS they release. For example, I bought RK3588-based board and the officially supported kernel version is 6.1. I know that Collabora and other people are working hard to have upstream support [1], but it will take time until all IPs are covered. Is there any alternative that has Linux support comparable to Raspberry Pi?
[1] https://gitlab.collabora.com/hardware-enablement/rockchip-35...
Since they're all RPI alternatives anyway and you don't get the ecosystem benefits, you should try an Intel N100. I switched my personal services over to one of those a couple years ago, and it's a great bang-for-your-buck small server. Being an Intel chip, stock Ubuntu just works. I've had no compatibility issues.
N100 indeed looks like a good alternative. I own one N100-based mini PC and I see there are some N100-based SBC as well. x86-like support for ARM/RISC-V SoC would be a miracle ;-).
Yeah, I love it. Losing access to the RPI ecosystem addons kind of sucks, but I found I don't really use them anyway. I think you can get a USB GPIO if you really need that, but personally I've moved more towards N100 for services, ESP32 for devices.