I have found a new problem where autonauts cannot run in xenial linux. It just crases, but the window pops up. maybe I just haven't installed something:)
When you say you launched it from "itch.io" do you mean the official Itch app? or do you mean the link on the Autonauts Itch web page? If it's the latter can I confirm you've unzipped the download correctly?
Unfortunately we don't have any version of Linux to test on. We've been relying on the community's testing efforts to tell us when something is wrong.