If you have a UDOO-EDU kit you will find a micro SD card with a preloaded image of the Udoobuntu OS. This image has been prepared specifically for the UMI-Sci-Ed project. Therefore some tools, such as Ardublockly, have been customised for the usage with the UDOO NEO. It is a stable system, but it is no longer updated. On the contrary, the latest release of Udoobuntu includes newer versions of many applications, which might enable more opportunities in developing your projects. Yet, you loose the UMI-Sci-Ed customisations, since this release is addressed to the general public.
Another difference between the two versions is in the connection to the UDOO IoT Cloud. The IoT Cloud is an online platform to which you can connect the UDOO NEO in order to manage the sensors and actuators from remote, and visualise the collected data. To know more about the UDOO IoT Cloud have a look here: https://www.udoo.org/get-started-iot/. Over the time the IoT Cloud has evolved, both in terms of functionalities and also of technical details. The preloaded UDOObuntu is no longer compatible with the current version of the IoT Cloud. However, to avoid losing this feature, a special version of the IoT Cloud is still available to the users of the UMI-Sci-Ed platform. Similarly to the preloaded Udoobuntu, this version has been “frozen” to the moment of creation and is no longer updated. If you wish to use the new features of the IoT Cloud, you need to use the latest version of Udoobuntu.
The following table resumes the differences and compatibilities of the two versions of the OS.
| Udoobuntu | preloaded on the UDOO-EDU SD card | latest from the UDOO web site |
| Ardublockly | customised for UDOO NEO | default version |
| UDOO IoT Cloud | old version available on UMI-Sci-Ed platform | new version on the public internet |