Color Management for Linear workflow in Maya

For the linear workflow in Maya, you inverse-gamma correct all the 8 bit (sRGB) file texture by attaching the gamma correct node with the gamma value of 0.455.

However, if you use Color Management feature in Render Settings, you can skip that gamma node attaching hassle.

 Turn on Enable Color Management option and set Default Input Profile to sRGB.

Now, create a file node and open attribute editor.

The file node has the Color profile attribute and it's set to Use Default Input Profile by default.

What this means is all the file nodes are treated as sRGB image and invers-gamma corrected internally by default.

Threfore, there's no need to attach a gamma correction node.

If you are reading a linear image ( HDR image, for example ), just simply set this attribute to Linear sRGB in the file node.Then, no gamma correction will be applied for that particular file node.

Simple as that. This can help  avoiding a cluttered shader connection and a potential Render Pass Mode artifact.

However, you still have to use gamma correction node for procedural textures and color pickers until Autodesk comes up with a better solution.