If you decide to run a server on Linode or something and making a build for Linux (which I'll personally test), then I would certainly take a stab at it and give feedback, I can grab one of my windows friends to test cross-comparability as well.
We are working on for dedicated servers like Microsoft Azure. If you want, for now you can connect to your friend with port forwarding. Today we'll publish the Linux build.
Thank you for the build! I definitely will forward the port and see if my friend can connect when we get a chance. For now, I'll be testing two LAN clients to see what the game is about.