I've worked with many boards from many vendors for many years now...

If you need software to be available in 2, 3, 5 years, get a raspberry pi.

Some might have some software available, some might have patches, some may need manual compiling, some only support debian with 2.4 kernel, some have binary blobs that only work on that 2.4 kernel, some have working usb ports on 2.4 and no gpio, but working gpio with 2.6 kernel but no usb ports, etc.

Just get a raspberry pi.