Hey GI Jerk: have you tried AutoKick using WINE yet? I've gotten it to run except for a few problems, like not saving registry settings correctly and the config windows won't let you do anything with them. But it does access the server and get status!

This is using an actual Win98SE partition for WINE, next I'm going to try it standalone since I'm pretty sure that'll fix my registry issues.
Also, have you tried out Mandrake 9.0 beta2 yet? Sure it's beta but it runs a hell of alot better than 8.2
BTW- I'm a Linux newbie, but I'm having fun learning it hehe