Okay, to get it compiling on Linux, here are the steps I suggest, roughly. They are untested, but they're fairly close (these steps were also described somewhere else in the Verge Help forum I think, dig around.)

1) Get the basic build essentials like gcc, g++, ar, make, et cetera. To do so provided you have apt-get, you just type "sudo apt-get install build-essentials".
2) Install the SDL dev kit for linux. I think it's "sudo apt-get install sdl-devel" or something to that extent. I dunno, look online.
3) Install SVN. This is the only way I expect source to be distributed, to ensure that developers are using the most recent builds instead of forking changes entirely separate from the codebase. Anyway, type "sudo apt-get install svn".
4) Checkout the repository After "cd"-ing into the folder you want to download the source to, type "svn checkout http://www.verge-rpg.com/svn/verge3". This might time out because vrpg is flaky sometimes, but eventually it should go through and start downloading source files. NOTE: The vrpg source is big because boost uses a lot of space (among other libraries).
5) Compile. With this you should have everything you need to compile, go "trunk/linux" within that repository checkout. Now, type "make" and it will start compilation. Depending, you may need to add some new rules to makefile if for some reason it decides not to use g++ for the .cpp source, which I've had happen on one platform I tried. There may also be compiler errors caused by platform specific code not being shared by your compiler. Try to fix the problems yourself if possible, call me if you really get stuck.
6) Run Verge. You can either type "./Verge3" at terminal or double click the executable in your window client. Note that popup windows will not occur when there are errors that cause Verge to exit, so run from terminal (with "logconsole 1" in verge.cfg) or read the v3.log when you want to debug problems
7) Have fun!

This is the other thread. Scroll down a bit, it'll start listing instructions and a few small problems Resident summarized everything near the (as of this time) end of the thread.

Recently fixed Linux to compile again, and it now also requires gtk libraries (which should be included with the OS). And the source includes SDL now, so that's one less dependency to gather.

Anyway, to respond. The reason I hesitate to make the three formats YET, is because this isn't a stable release yet. And packaging the source on every commit is a lot of pain. But when Zeromus and I get Verge working a bit more, we'll release a new version, and hopefully provide several binaries/distributions so everyone can be happy.

I'd love to have Verge appear in an official APT repository at some point too. But anyway, there are a few things we're still fixing up, and a few more portability concerns. When we're done, Verge should be moderately more awesome behind-the-scenes (while not being all that visibly different... Lots of internal changes though).

Drop me a line, Omni, if you wanna help at all with the Linux distribution stuff at all, since you seem pretty familiar with it.

Must making a package be done on a normal install, or could this be done on LiveCD or Wubi? Just a suggestion. If that would work, it wouldn't be much more than a trip over to Ubuntu's website to pick up an iso! Hope that helps. ^_^

Fun times ahead.

What do I need to do to build Maped (or alternative map editor(s) ) under Linux? (i mean, in theory I could build a craptastic but workable map-editor in VERGE itself if there's a description of the file format someplace)

I just dug the old Duron out of storage for the purposes of using Maped, but I am having regkey related shennanagins, and it occurs to me that Windows is simply a means to an end in any case, and how I would much rather not need Windows at all, and stick bloody Ubuntu on the old box instead.