I’ve recently installed some linux distros in VM and here are results:
Fedora 16/17: Works flawlessly, all examples opens, games are compiled correctly.
Mandriva 2011: As above
Gentoo: Sorry, wasn’t able to install that shit, so someone else has to test it (though probably it should work, see below)
Sabayon Linux (Gentoo based): Works and compiles fine.
OpenSuSE: Works, as I use that distro.
Arch Linux: Wasn’t able to install X Windows so couldn’t test it.
CentOS: Works flawlessly.
Mint: Works flawlessly.
So I think is pretty safe to “Download Game Develop for Ubuntu” with “Download for Linux” .