Linux users aren't the issue. Nor am I attempting to blame them. The problem is that basically you are always aiming at a moving target of system configuration

Linux users aren't the issue. Nor am I attempting to blame them. The problem is that basically you are always aiming at a moving target of system configuration when you release. Do you bet that your users have mechanical disks or SSD? If you aim for the latter you can make different choices. Windows as an operating system moves pretty slowly compared to the broader linux ecosystem, your percent users running a particular version of say DirectX is easy to guess, and easy to predict. The problem when you move to linux is that the landscape is shifting rapidly. Everything from the kernel to libraries to what Distro is hot this week change nightly.OT steal mikepavone's example; In the last few years how many new families of windows video card drivers have come out? How much change have we seen in their capabilities? On linux the answer is, frankly, impressive. This is great for linux, but it makes it hard to reach out to the smaller percent of the small percent of users who are having an issue and fix their issues. The result is that at release you can just let that windows binary sit there and maybe fix a few bugs that crop up in your code. Your linux binary is more of a surfing act where things are great, then you are slowing down, and something breaks, and the whole tower comes down. Fundamentally, it's why things like Unity are popular. The fewer people on a team, the less time you have deal with things like compatibility issues.