Apellix is a Florida based startup that specialises in aerial robotics. They intend to create safer work environments by replacing workers with its task-specific drones to complete high-risk jobs at dangerous/elevated work sites.

Robotics with an Ubuntu Twist

Ubuntu is expanding its reach into robotics and IoT in a big way. A few years ago at the TechCrunch Disrupt event, UAVIA unveiled a new generation of its one hundred percent remotely operable drones (an industry first, they claimed), which were built with Ubuntu under the hood. Then there were other like Erle Robotics (recently renamed to Acutronic Robotics) which made big strides in drone technology using Ubuntu at its core.

Apellix is the only aerial robotics company with drones "capable of making contact with structures through fully computer-controlled flight", claims Robert Dahlstrom, Founder and CEO of Apellix.

"At height, a human pilot cannot accurately gauge distance. At 45m off the ground, they can’t tell if they are 8cm or 80cm away from the structure. With our solutions, an engineer simply positions the drone near the inspection site, then the on-board computer takes over and automates the delicate docking process." He adds.

Apellix considered many popular Linux distributions before zeroing in on Ubuntu for its stability, reliability, and large developer ecosystem. Ubuntu's versatility also enabled Apellix to use the same underlying OS platform and software packages across development and production.

The team is currently developing on Ubuntu Server with the intent to migrate to Ubuntu Core. The company is also making extensive use of Ubuntu Server, both on-board its robotic systems and its cloud operations, according to a case study by Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical Foundation. 

"With our aircraft, an error of 2.5 cm could be the difference between a successful flight and a crash," comments Dahlstrom. "Software is core to avoiding those errors and allowing us to do what we do - so we knew that placing the right OS at the heart of our solutions was essential." 

Enterprise Ubuntu users have more reasons to cheer about. Canonical has partnered with Docker Inc. to provide professional grade support of Docker software to Ubuntu's Enterprise customers. Docker is a premier software container solution renowned for its ease of use and scalability. Docker Inc. already has similar contracts signed with major vendors such as Microsoft and HP.

What is Docker?

Docker is an open-source software that automates the deployment of various Linux applications inside software containers. Docker Inc. is generally considered as the company that brought software containers to the mainstream. Docker makes it easy to run a far greater number of apps on the same old servers without compromising on usability or security.

Unlike VM hypervisors, software containers are very lean on system requirements since they use shared operating systems. Instead of virtualizing entire hardware, containers sit on top of a single Linux instance, for example. As a result, you can have as many as four-to-six times the number of server application instances on the same hardware. Here's a really good article about Docker and software containers in general if you are interested.

The Announcement:

A week ago, Docker and Canonical announced an integrated Commercially Supported (CS) Docker Engine offering on Ubuntu, providing Canonical customers with a single path for support of the Ubuntu operating system and CS Docker Engine in enterprise Docker operations. Apparently, there is a "large, positive overlap" of enterprise users that use Ubuntu and Docker together.

As per the contract, Docker Inc. will provide Ubuntu users with stable, up-to-date Docker releases using Ubuntu's snap packages technology and Canonical in return will provide a two-tier technical support for Docker engine. Ubuntu is already one of the most popular Cloud Linux platforms out there and is now the first among Linux vendors to provide direct, official Docker support.

"Through our partnership, we provide users with more choice by bringing the agility, portability, and security benefits of the Docker CS engine to the larger Ubuntu community," said Nick Stinemates, Vice President, Business Development & Technical Alliances at Docker. "Additionally, Ubuntu customers will be able to take advantage of official Docker support -- a service that is not available from most Linux distributions. Together, we have aligned to make it even easier for organizations to create new efficiencies across the entire software supply chain."

Ubuntu is slowly but steadily improving its footprint in the web server space. W3Tech provides some of the most reliable data regarding the use of various technologies in the web server space. According to W3Tech's latest set of data, Ubuntu is now commanding 11.1% market-share among websites 'whose operating system we know'.

Ubuntu: W3Tech's Operating System of the year 2015

Up from a meagre 4% share in 2011, Ubuntu's is now used by 11.1% of all the websites whose operating system we know. This according to the latest set of web server usage statistics released by W3Techs. 

This massive surge is market-share over the years are among the reasons why Ubuntu grabbed the top spot among operating systems in web-server space in the W3Techs survey 2015. Ubuntu is followed by Gentoo while Scientific Linux came in at a surprising no.3 position. Last year's winner, Debian, failed to feature in the top 3. Windows on the other hand has never been able to regain its pole position since 2010. 

Other open source technologies such as Wordpress, Drupal, Nginx, JQuery etc. feature prominently in the survey. Wordpress and Drupal remains the most popular content management systems in use even today. WordPress reached an impressive milestone this year by running a quarter of the web. Java was the fastest growing server-side programming language in 2015. 3.0% of all websites are built with Java, up from 2.8% last year. JavaScript is getting more and more popular as server-side technology, making it the second-fastest growing language. Nginx crossed the 25% mark in 2015, and is the web server of the year for the 6th time in a row. [Detailed report here]

Ubuntu powered Drones are not new. Erle Robotics showcased their Drones that run on top of Snappy Ubuntu Core sometime ago. But the ones unveiled by UAVIA recently are slightly different.

How are UAVIA drones different?
During the TechCrunch Disrupt event held in London a few days ago, UAVIA unveiled a new generation of completely remote controlled drones, powered by Snappy Ubuntu Core. "This will be the first time that 100% remotely operable drones will be available in the market - and they’ve been built with Ubuntu under the hood."

Drones in its current forms are pretty cumbersome machines which also requires the operator to be physically present at the location. Flight ranges are also pretty limited. UAVIA lifts these technical limitations by using its Cloud Control technology as well as charging stations dispatched directly on field.

"This enables remote sensing and surveillance without any human intervention on field, dramatically reducing costs for companies in the need of surveillance or technical monitoring on industrial sites. This is the first step towards full autonomy which will see the drone market explode."

Maarten Ectors, Vice President Internet of Things at Canonical: "For drones to become mainstream, we need more of them to become autonomous and we need to facilitate their maintenance. Ubuntu Core is key to unlocking the full drone potential. It brings onboard intelligence to help drones progress towards autonomous flight thanks to sense and avoid technologies. It facilitates maintenance by making remote software deployments secure, effective and failsafe. UAVIA drones have banked on these attributes building their entire service on Ubuntu on-device, on server and on the pilot software!"

Further reading at Ubuntu Insights | Related: Dronecode Project by Linux Foundation

Ubuntu has touched the lives of many among us in different ways. I can't speak for everyone here and hence I will share a few of my experiences with Ubuntu. For me, Ubuntu was the gateway to Linux and to the whole open source way of thinking. Ubuntu taught me that computers are not all about Windows OS and that there are far better alternatives than the "default" Windows desktop which you have been made to see and learn from a younger age. Lets go back in time and see how Ubuntu evolved over the years to become what it is now - a totally awesome, user-friendly and fast changing Linux based distro for 'human beings'.

A Brief History of Ubuntu

A new version of Ubuntu is released every 6 months like clockwork, and as of Oct 2015, a grand total of 23 stable releases has been delivered. Each release also has a specific code name which are made using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter (e.g. Hardy Heron, Wily Werewolf). We will do a brief overview of each one of them below. A walk back through the history of Ubuntu. Read on.

Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Ubuntu 4.10 codenamed "Warty Warthog" marked the beginning of a new kid in the block, the first and foremost release of Ubuntu by Canonical foundation. This new Linux distro was based on Debian and aimed at giving new users a trouble free experience of Linux. This release also crucially brought the Ubuntu shipit feature where by users could get Ubuntu installation CD's mailed to their homes for free through a simple signup. Shipit was one of those key USPs that made Ubuntu a very popular choice among youngsters in those early days. I think I still have several lying around near my old PC. And who can forget those Ubuntu branded stickers!

Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)

Ubuntu 5.04 codenamed "Hoary Hedgehog" was released on 8 April 2005. From this second release onwards, massive changes started to trickle in. Ubuntu 5.04 added many new features including an update manager, upgrade notifier, readahead and grepmap, suspend, hibernate and standby support, dynamic frequency scaling for processors among many other major improvements. Ubuntu 5.04 was so ahead of its time that it even introduced support for installation from USB devices. 

Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

Ubuntu 5.10 codenamed "Breezy Badger" was released on 12 October 2005, the third stable release of Ubuntu by Canonical. Ubuntu 5.10 added several new features including a graphical bootloader (Usplash), an Add/Remove Applications tool, a menu editor, an easy language selector, crucial logical volume management support, full Hewlett-Packard printer support, OEM installer support among others. More importantly, this release also brought in Launchpad integration for bug reporting and software development.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS codenamed "Dapper Drake" was released on 1 June 2006. It was also the first Long Term Support(LTS) release. This was also the only time when the Ubuntu release cycle was slightly pushed forward by 2 months owing to all sorts of delays. Many new features were introduced including having the Live CD and Install CD merged onto one disc, a graphical installer on Live CD, a network manager for easy switching of multiple wired and wireless connections, implementation of Humanlooks theme among other improvements.

Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)

Ubuntu 6.10 codenamed "Edgy Eft" was released on 26 October 2006, Canonical's fifth Ubuntu release. Tomboy, F-Spot became new defaults. Human theme also went through heavy modifications.

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

Ubuntu 7.04 codenamed "Feisty Fawn" was released on 19 April 2007. This release had a very special significance for me. Feisty was my first real Linux experience. I was a complete noob to the whole Linux way of life then and barely installed Ubuntu in my laptop with the help of friends and Ubuntu Forums. And to be frank, the primary reason for me trying out Ubuntu was Compiz and all the bling that came with it. In those clogged XP-Vista days, Compiz was (and it still is in many ways) a breath of fresh air.

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

Ubuntu 7.10 codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon" released on 18 October 2007. Ubuntu 7.10 introduced Compiz Fusion as a default feature. This seventh release of Ubuntu also marked the introduction of full NTFS support.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)

Ubuntu 8.04 codenamed "Hardy Heron" was released on 24 April 2008. This was the second LTS version of Ubuntu. In my opinion, this release had one of the best designed Ubuntu wallpaper as default. Brasero disc burner and transmission bit torrent client were introduced during this release. Controversial Pulse Audio became the new default system sound server. This release also introduced Wubi installer using which you can install Ubuntu inside Windows without repartitioning the disk.

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

Ubuntu 8.10 codenamed Intrepid Ibex was released on 30 October 2008. It was the ninth Ubuntu release and it was also one of my favorite releases. This release introduced useful Ubuntu Live USB creator application. Guest session functionality was also introduced during Intrepid Ibex release.

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" was released on 23 April 2009. This release marked the first time that all of Ubuntu's core development moved to the Bazaar distributed revision control system which is designed to make it easier for anyone to contribute to free and open source software projects. Faster boot time was another major achievement of this release.

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Ubuntu 9.10 codenamed "Karmic Koala" released on 29 October 2009. From this release onwards, Ubuntu slowly started to shift gears. A slew of changes started to flood Ubuntu. During Ubuntu Karmic's release cycle, Canonical introduced the One Hundred Paper Cuts project, focusing developers to fix minor usability issues. This was a major move and it helped bring a lot of polish for Ubuntu in the latter releases. This release also introduced Ubuntu Software Center.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

Ubuntu 10.04 codenamed "Lucid Lynx" was released on 29 April 2010. Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" is my favorite release to date and it brought about the biggest amount of changes ever. Ubuntu had a complete branding makeover during this release cycle. Even the brown theme was ditched for the first time for a more bright and pleasant looking "Light" inspired theme. Changes Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx went through.

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

Ubuntu 10.10 codenamed "Maverick Meerkat" was released on 10 October 2010 (10.10.10) at around 10:10 UTC. Close to the heels of Ubuntu Lucid release, Ubuntu Maverick was also packed with new features and improvements. Ubuntu Software Center became one of the applications that received maximum amount of attention. Canonical's attention to detail started showing up big time during Ubuntu 10.10 release cycle.

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" was perhaps *the* most controversial Ubuntu release ever. Canonical introduced Unity shell with Ubuntu 11.04 which created quite a furore among its vast user base. Unity was Ubuntu's answer to GNOME 3.0's GNOME Shell desktop, though Ubuntu 11.04 was still based on previous GNOME 2.x.

Reactions from users was not really what Canonical would have hoped for. Unity was far less customisable when compared to earlier versions and that was simply unacceptable to many long-term Ubuntu users.

Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

Ubuntu 11.10 codenamed "Oneiric Ocelot" was the first GNOME 3.0 based Ubuntu release. Oneiric did not brought in sweeping changes like its predecessor did. But it does brought in a lot of polish to the controversial Unity UI. LightDM replaced GDM as Ubuntu's new default login screen. Classic Gnome Desktop was completely ditched in favor of Unity 2D during this release cycle. A quick screenshot tour of Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Quicklists was introduced as a default feature for the very first time. Apart from the usual three Unity lenses (Applications, Files and Music), there is an additional Video lens too which lets you select and play videos from a variety of sources ranging from your local collection to YouTube Movies, BBC iPlayer and TED Talks to name a few. HUD became fully operational. Default launcher behavior is set to "always visible" instead of "dodge windows". Rhythmbox is back again replacing Banshee as the default music player. Changes in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 12.10 (Quanty Quetzal)

Like most previous *.10 releases, Ubuntu 12.10 became the testing ground for a barrage of new features. We listed a grand total of 23 improvements/changes in Ubuntu 12.10, which is pretty staggering at any count. Improvements to LightDM based login screen, remote login facility, Unity Dash price ribbons, Local Apps filter, Launcher improvements, a new dedicated Ubuntu One Music app, and more privacy with the introduction of ON/OFF switch for online search results withing Unity Dash. Ubuntu 12.10 had its share of controversies also. For example, the introduction of Amazon shopping lens as default riled up many.

Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)

Though Unity was improved leaps and bounds by now, it lacked the polishness and finesse it deserved. With the help of recently joined designer known for his gorgeous works including Faenza theme, Ubuntu 13.04 look and feel got some much needed attention. The new shutdown menu and core app icons were a class apart. The new "spinning" Unity dash icon and Software Updater icon set benchmarks in branding. Also, Wubi installer was dropped during this release owing to compatibility issues with Windows 8. And more importantly, it was decided that non-LTS Ubuntu releases will see their support periods halved (9 months instead of 18) from Ubuntu 13.04 onwards. Go through the list of visual changes in Ubuntu 13.04.

Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)

With Unity maturing, updates became more minor in nature. There were talks about replacing Firefox with Chromium as default web browser for Ubuntu, but it never materialised. There were also talks about replacing aging X11 with XMir display server and then go on to completely replace X session by Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. But XMir still remains a work in progress.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

Unity 7 was really starting to feel more "middle-aged" with every passing release. More incremental updates than sweeping changes showed signs of maturity. But even then, the ability to turn off the global menu and the arrival of Local Integrated Menus were welcome additions. Click to Minimize became available through a CCSM update. X11 was retained and XMir adoption pushed even further. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS was a largely uneventful LTS release, which can be a good thing in my opinion. Everything just worked.

Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn)

Ubuntu 14.10 was supposed to be rock solid released release with incremental updates. And it was, for many. But for me, this one was a pretty eventful release. Weirdly, I faced a lot of teething issues with Ubuntu 14.10 so much that I had to replace Ubuntu with elementary OS as my daily work horse for the first time (not that I'm complaining). Netflix started working out of the box, which was a big positive. This was also the release cycle during which Canonical seriously devoted resources into its mobile platform and work on Unity 8 was acquiring some serious momentum. Here's our compilation of things to do after installing Ubuntu 14.10.

Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet)

With the arrival of Ubuntu 15.04, things were back to normal for me. Ubuntu was working just as good as ever, thanks to "Vivid Vervet". This was also the release when Upstart was finally dropped in favour of systemd. There were also improvements to Intel Haswell and AMD Radeon graphics performance. Visual changes? Not so much. Oh and don't forget to read our top things to do after installing Ubuntu 15.04 compilation.

Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf)

Ubuntu 15.10 was released just yesterday without much fanfare. With works on Unity 8 improving at a rapid pace, Canonical is finding less and less reasons to spend time on adding features and functionalities on Unity 7 based Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf". Ubuntu Touch OS meant for mobile platforms got a lot of attention, yet again, which is now capable of receiving instant over the air updates. Mir display server was also supposed to be there as default, but its release has been pushed further. Visually, the biggest change is the removal of disappearing window edge scrollbars (something I really liked) in favour of the upstream GNOME scrollbars. Underneath, there are not much changes, except for the updated Kernel. Very stable and reliable OS though, have been using it since the arrival of first beta. Download here.

Next in Line: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus"

This could turn out to be the most important Ubuntu release since the arrival of Unity, if not forever. To be released on 21 April 2016, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is expected to include Unity 8 running natively on Mir. I can't wait!

[Thanks to Wikipedia for screenshots of earlier versions of Ubuntu. And thank you for reading.]

Time and again, Ubuntu keeps popping up whenever there's some Google product launch. Remember Google's Project Tango or that bit of news about the use of a 'lightly custmozied Ubuntu' in Google's Driverless Car project? Given its widespread use inside Google, it's no surprise than Google is an Ubuntu Advantage Customer.

Snappy Ubuntu Core is a new rendition of Ubuntu with transactional updates - a minimal server image with the same libraries as today’s Ubuntu, but applications are provided through a simpler mechanism. It is fast and nimble, and is finding new takers from across the industry. Erle Robotics, makers of a wide range of robotic hardware and tools that include state-of-the-art drone technology, are using Snappy Ubuntu Core as their platform of choice.

Canonical group, along with four other companies which include Raspberry Pi Foundation, has been bestowed with Pioneers of Technology 2015 award by World Economic Forum (WEF). The award was given to Canonical in the Digital Networks and Computing category, which recognises organisations involved in computer hardware, software and networks, as well as their applications for social, security, payment or learning purposes.

Robotics is not new to Linux. But it is good to see one in live action. Here in this video featuring Honda's ASIMO Robot, Ubuntu can be spotted doing all the dirty work behind the scenes. 

Turin, Italy joins the French city of Toulouse and German city of Munich in the mass adoption of open source and Linux as the official alternatives saving millions of Euros in licensing cost and other charges. News like these are becoming more commonplace these days. Major cities in the world are choosing Linux primarily because of cost-benefits, and Microsoft is finding it harder and harder to explain the huge costs involved with its products.

Ubuntu is popping up everywhere. Google's Project Tango video and driverless car project were recent examples. Then there was this news about French Armed Forces' adoption of Ubuntu en masse. Everything points to a brighter future for Ubuntu OS. It almost seems like Ubuntu and Linux are slowly becoming the de facto choice for enterprise users.

Meizu is all set to unveil its flagship Ubuntu Touch powered smartphone at Mobile Asia Expo 2014 to be held at Shanghai, China.

Tianhe-2 is a 33.86 petaflops supercomputer, dubbed as the world's fastest supercomputer, located in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Years have passed since we made this list featuring many of the most prominent retailers of Ubuntu and Linux pre-installed laptops and desktops of the time. But the current state of affairs leaves a lot to be desired. Choice is still meagre when it comes to hardware even though the likes of System76 has made the life of an average Linux user a lot easier. Now, we have a new kid in the block. Ebuyer.com is one of the largest independent online retailers of Computers and electronics in UK. And they have decided to go Ubuntu!

Like many other niches, music production was not really a Linux forte. But that's changing now and like what happened to the video editing scene, popular music production tools are finding its way into Linux. Though I love listening to all kinds of music, I'm no music production expert. And hence I can't pass informative judgments on any of the applications you're going to read about in the article below.

Consider this blogpost as a brief introduction to different music production tools available for Ubuntu and Linux, and not as a review per se. So here we go again. 10 useful music production tools for Ubuntu and Linux.

Bitwig Studio Digital Audio Workstation

• Bitwig Studio is a multi-platform music-creation tool for production, performance and DJing. 

• Bitwig Studio is made by developers that used to work on Ableton Live, a Windows only Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). And like Lightworks for video editing, Bitwig Studio will be a professional grade music production tool with support for Linux platform. 
• Expected release date: March 26, 2014. Know more.

Ardour: Audio mixing software for Linux

• Record, edit and mix audio using Ardour. Supports Linux and Mac. 
• Ardour is open source and is released under GPLv2/GPLv3 license.

 

• Ardour is a great example of commercial free-libre software. Users who download from ardour.org are asked to pay at least $1 for downloading prebuilt binaries of Ardour; those users then have the right to obtain minor updates until the next major release.

• Another option is to subscribe by paying $1, $4 or $10 per month. Subscribers can download prebuilt binaries of all updates during the subscription period.
• Without paying anything, users can download the full source code for all platforms.
• Download Ardour for Linux.

Renoise Digital Audio Workstation

• Renoise is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with a unique top-down approach to music composition known as a tracker interface. 

• Features include full MIDI and MIDI sync support, VST 2.0 plugin support, ASIO multi I/O cards support, integrated sampler and sample editor, internal real-time DSP effects with unlimited number of effects per track, master and send tracks, full automation of all commands, hi-fi .WAV rendering (up to 32 bit 96 kHz), Rewire support, etc.
• A full version of Renoise cost USD 78.00, which is noticeably cheaper than competing digital audio workstations (DAWs) such as Ableton Live and even the upcoming Bitwig Studio which costs around USD 749 and USD 400 (rumored) respectively. 
• Renoise digital audio workstation.

Tracktion Music Production Software for Linux

• Tracktion is yet another high-profile entrant into the Linux music production scene.

• Tracktion is a digital audio workstation for recording and editing audio and MIDI. The project was started with the intention of creating the most easy-to-use music production tool out there. 
• Tracktion is proprietary, and supports a wide range of audio formats including WAV, AIFF and Ogg-Vorbis.
• Tracktion beta version for Linux is free now. Get it here. 

Rosegarden Digital Audio Workstation (Linux exclusive)

• Rosegarden is an open source digital audio workstation for Linux, based around a MIDI sequencer that features a rich understanding of music notation and includes basic support for digital audio.





• Ideal for composers, musicians, and students working from a small studio or home recording environments. Quite easy to learn and runs exclusively on Linux.
• Download Rosegarden for Linux (an early alpha version for Windows is also available)

Hydrogen: Advanced drum machine for Linux

• Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for Linux, an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or similar percussion instruments. 

• Hydrogen's interface uses Qt library and the entire code-base is released to the public under the GNU General Public License. 
• Download Hydrogen for Linux (Ubuntu PPA also available) 

Mixxx: Linux's very own professional DJing software

• Mixxx is a free, open source, digital DJing software that allows mixing music in your Linux system with ease.

• Mixxx started off as a humble project for a doctoral thesis way back in 2001. Today it is a full-fledged application that is downloaded over one million times annually.



• It is licensed under the GPL (v2.0 or later) and runs on all major desktop operating systems.
• Ubuntu PPA available (Update: Ubuntu 18.10 support also included in the same PPA)
• More download options here.

Audacity: Record and edit music in Linux with ease

• Audacity is the most well-known application here, and perhaps the most basic too.

• Audacity is a free and open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing all kinds of music and audio. It is one of the most downloaded software in SourceForge, with nearly 100 million downloads. 
• If you are on Ubuntu, Click here to install Audacity.
• More download options for Audacity can be found here. 

LMMS: Linux MultiMedia Studio

• Linux MultiMedia Studio or LMMS is yet another free and open-source music production application on Linux. It works cross-platform too.

• This include creating of melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing of sounds and arranging samples.
• LMMS is available for Linux and Windows. Download here. 

JACK: Jack Audio Connection Kit

• Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) is perhaps the most important tool as far as music production on Linux is concerned. It is a professional sound server daemon that provides real-time, low latency connections for both audio and MIDI data between applications that implement its API.

• It can connect a number of different applications to an audio device, as well as allowing them to share audio between themselves.
• Most of the open-source applications listed above and plenty more out there does use its API. See this exhaustive list for yourself. 
• The server is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL, while the library is licensed under the more permissive GNU LGPL.
• Download options here.

Another instance of Ubuntu being used in fields most of us are not even aware of. This video popped up on reddit a few hours ago. Skip to 01:00 to see Ubuntu in action.