Has anyone tried this under wine using Linux?
client.exe just won't work for me. Whenever I try to run it I get a program error. The server creator works fine, but I can't even join my games because it tells me that I can't connect. Am I shit out of luck here?

have you tried Wine?

http://ace-spades.com/forums/topic.php?id=44

I posted in the above thread about how I got it working on osx (using wineskin).. If you're handy with winetricks, you can do it from the CLI using the (vague) instructions that I outline.. otherwise I'd checkout http://vineyardproject.org/ as a pretty decent wrapper around wine in ubuntu.

anyways, bottom line: I got it working on osx with wine, so it's definitely possible on loonix.

Yeah It runs really well under Linux. Check http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=12965 for detailed instructions and up to date info.