It has been more than a year since we learned of Canonical and Samsung's intention to work together to bring Ubuntu to Samsung's Artik platform. Today we can say that this project is a reality, being Ubuntu Core the default operating system for Samsung Artik boards.
This operating system will be in its version 16.04, an LTS version or rather Long Support version that will be until the next LTS version that Ubuntu launches on the market.
The choice of Ubuntu 16.04 as Artik's operating system is due to the possibility of enable and use the SBC board modules like Wifi, Bluetooth or Zigbee module. The Ubuntu Core 16.04 version for Artik 5 and Artik 7 is already enabled and therefore its users can now download it and use it for their personal or business projects. You can get all the related software thanks to the samsung platform.
This will allow the Samsung board (s) can be used in IoT projects as well as developers creating software and specific applications for Samsung boards or for IoT project devices.
Artik is a platform for Hardware Libre powered by Samsung trying to offer an alternative to Raspberry Pi and Arduino. But to this day, Artik's popularity has not come to shadow the success of the Raspberry Pi or Arduino. Perhaps for this reason, Samsung has chosen Ubuntu 16.04 as the operating system, being a very stable, secure platform and with great ease for developers.
Personally I think that if Samsung wants to promote this platform, it should not bet on a single platform but on several and make the plates cheaper or at least have prices close to Raspberry Pi and into the pockets of users.