does anyone know if maya will work on ubutoo linux?

You should be able to get it to work. When I went for the open day at Bristol University their Graphics Lab used it on Redhat and there is an ebuild for it in portage on Gentoo so I don't see why Ubuntu wouldnt work (could always just use the package from either of those two (yes the package management systems might be different but you can extract the content and still use it)). I think they offer the Linux version to download but it still requires some of the files from the Windows version that you buy and the CD Key/ Serial so you will still need an authentic copy.

 

I'm sure someone else who is more acquainted with Maya will be able to tell you a little bit more.