No, it's shit.  It's the SOC's USB that sucks, so unless they change the SOC the shit USB is going to be there for good.  If they change the SOC, then it's no longer a Pi.

That's why the BBB works, it uses a totally different Ti ARMv7 SOC, not the older ARMv6 in the Pi.


To be fair on the designers of the Pi, the USB was there for a USB keyboard and perhaps a USB wifi dongle so school kids could get the things running (hence the composite video output also).  It was never designed to run 20-odd bitcoin miners hanging off multiple hubs.  They would probably have put a couple of PS2 ports on the thing if they had designed it a few years earlier...

The BeagleBone Black's design is more geared towards the 'hobbyist', so faster more capable SOC, better cape support, and the eMMC is fantastic to have.