Do this device and the other alternative mentioned (Capibara Zero) have the same level of software support as the Flipper Zero? I imagine the strong community behind the Flipper Zero is a big factor in its ongoing popularity.
Exactly, the flipepr have a enormous community that help, beyond all the people that work for flipper. So in this case is no, the software support is not even remotely comparable
It is exactly same problem like Raspberry Pi vs all other (cheaper, better) single board computers.
Except the RPi competition isn't better, only cheaper, because it has terrible software; and without a big community, no support?
Totally depends on what “better” means to you and your use case.
Having a SATA or M2 is something what I would consider definitely better, however software is usually garbage stuck on one specific Linux Kernel and that's the reason why better hardware will never catch on.
what do you mean "terrible software", as long as they have linux kernel for it, i don't see how it's more terrible than raspberry
Terrible as in you will be stuck in the pretty much only kernel image that runs on it without being able to update things beyond the kernel
If you stick to RockChip stuff, it's not bad.
The firmware repo was archived Apr 12, 2025. I don't think it's going to be revived or be feature-competitive.