Just to throw my 2 cents out there:
Being platform independant doesn't just mean it runs on a Linux based machine, it also means it runs on a machine that uses any OS and any processor architecture (provided an implimentation has been made for that architecture). This makes it very easy to port a PC developed game to a Console, or vice versa.
I would agree with Bubba about using SDL, because SDL requires that you bring in the whole shebang (graphics, input, sound, etc). You will have an SDL window around in the background unless you perform some tricks to get rid of it, but it's not worth it.
