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I own both the BeBook and the PRS-505. The short answer is, if you're willing to invest some time getting OpenInkpot up and running, get the BeBook. If you're not, then get the Sony. I've had no issues dropping books on SD cards from my Linux machine and reading them in either device (mostly PDFs but some converted Mobipocket books, too).
The PRS-505 is a better device out of the box; the BeBook comes with absolutely inferior software and the hardware doesn't feel as nice in the hands, and their layout of the page-switching buttons feels very strange to me. The BeBook has the previous/next buttons on the left-hand side of the device, while those same buttons are on the right-hand side on the PRS-505. This matters, because the leather "shell" that comes with the BeBook folds on the left side - making it really awkward to get to the page-turning buttons unless you fold the leather case backwards on itself.
That said, OpenInkpot (and the ability to hack together your own software, if you know how to do such a thing) makes the BeBook infinitely more attractive to me at the moment. The library-navigation software and PDF reader on the PRS-505 are much better than the ones that come with the standard BeBook firmware, but the OpenInkpot software is pretty competitive with the PRS-505 for responsiveness and attractiveness.
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