Question: I am trying to develop server-side using loopback with database connector.
However, I am quite confused with installing loopback on AWS. 

[reference for installing loopback on AWS](http://docs.strongloop.com/display/SL/Amazon+EC2)

This website mentioned that only loopback of version 2.0 could be installed.
Yet, when I browse through loopback website, <https://strongloop.com/strongblog/how-to-setup-push-notifications-private-mbaas-amazon-aws-part-1/>, this website shows that it seems possible to install loopback of version higher than 2.0 on AWS. Since there are some features only available after version 2.1x, it would be nice if AWS allows installation of loopback of version higher than 2.0. Could anyone help me solve the problem? BTW, I am only using free tier of AWS and do not intend to pay at this moment.

Answer: 
Even if you install the image that comes preconfigured with Loopback 2, you should be able to upgrade to newer versions using npm as you normally would (`sudo npm install -g strongloop` and the like). Imagine if there's a security issue that you'd need that wasn't backported for whatever reason...Loopback is just files and the image is just linux. You have free reign to update/upgrade whatever you need.

My recommendation would be to start out with a minimal Ubuntu image and install everything with npm. You'll understand the ecosystem better and won't be surprised by something you don't remember installing specifically.

One caveat that a bunch of preconfigured images have is they are only available on older instance types (m1 for instance--*pun not intended ;)*). They are slower and more expensive than newer instances.
You can probably install whatever you want.  

The difference is that if you want a machine image that contains everything already there and don't want to build it yourself you're stuck to 2.0 here (<https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00PG9I0M0>)  

What I would do is use the provided AMI and after that upgrade loopback manually.