About Bitfighter

The Linux versions are released only in source code format on the game website. Select Linux distros also have binary releases available in their repositories.

Many GPL developers, despite their good intentions, are ironically enslaved to proprietary software and thinking. The think they can't do Linux development; they assume its too difficult, the know they used proprietary development tools and environments thus making unimaginable amounts of additional porting work necessarily. When in fact they already have created a Linux version by not using proprietary code. Yes, if they used DirectX, proprietary Java extensions, some programming library the paid for, then they've added difficulty to create a Linux version. But in Bitfighter's case, they avoided proprietary traps and crated pure code that simple compiles under Linux. I know, because I did so myself. If I can do it, then professionals certainly can. and they did
There are Ubuntu binaries via getdeb.
There are OpenSuSE binaries via normal RPM repositories.

The "unable to provide binaries themselves" is likely because they don't have Linux computer themselves to compile them on, not because they have problems with it. Or lack cross-compilation tools on their own platform for Linux.

Probably most likely is that they've delegated binary distribution of the game to Linux distros themselves, which I believe is quite common.These are usually provided by the distro maintainers, not the application/game developers, unless they have vested interest in the distro themselves and willing to maintain it themselves. At least Gentoo provided info on who was the maintainer on the repository for each package and I'd think same applies to others.

Edit: as an example, the Ubuntu distro package is apparently maintained by "Christoph Korn" who wasn't at least clearly listed among the developers of the game (considering the changelog for the distro package is updating to match "upstream updates", it sounds pretty much that he is only the maintainer for the distro package).

The Bitfighter devs directly build the Linux releases themselves for most platforms. We have a primary Linux dev on our core team, and we see Linux as one of our key platforms. It's not just an "extra".

Reworded the article so it doesn't claim something without proof, though I omitted implying the Linux binary versions are by the authors since there still isn't clear indication of it (and I don't think I will bother with updating it if it changes since it hardly matters).