my next question is what language is clear flight written in? if it is indeed java with OpenGL and OpenAL according to what i understand of java its not too big a venture. As long as you insure that there are certain package dependencies that are met most modern distros will meet that. Fedora Ubuntu Suse etc now granted you probably would try to avoid working to ensure slackware users are happy because there is just no way with the way it functions.

the growing typical user of linux these days would atleast buy software they cant get otherwise as long as its not from the evil microsoft that was a joke about the former user base. Linux users vary accross the board to the mainstream to the extreme. there are users today that are becoming less involved with the command line.

how much research has been done into what it would take to complete a linux port?

I have been a linux user since about 1998 and i have bought copies of different distros. I currently use Ubuntu but Slackware was what i started on. i dont disagree with you about the blame game either. I am just trying to say that small software companies are in the same boat as big software companies in stating that there isnt enough interest when there most certainly is interest. i have stated before its a catch 22 because software companies state they wont port because of the low amount of users but then the user base wont grow because there isn't enough of software that certain users use. i stopped using my real flight G2 because i dropped dual booting and started using Ubuntu exclusively. and it wont work with wine either because of the crappy inter-controller or what ever that thing is called. it runs but doesnt detect the usb controller that comes with the software.