Hi Keith,
I would suggest starting on Ubuntu Linux. This will cover a huge number of Linux users and you will also be able to more easily adapt the package to any other Debian based distribution, of which there are many.
This results in a better formed question: Can I get all the pygame parts (including things like numpy/numeric) into one location and rely on a distro's Python to just work? I'm pretty sure my python code is compliant back to 2.3.
The standard way of working this scenario is to create a package, with just your components in it, which then contains metadata for its dependencies so that the package manager ("apt" in the case of Ubuntu or other Debian based distros) will then handle the dependencies. You can specify which version of a particular application or library is required and as long as you test it on the system you are aiming for you should be fine.
Have a look at the following document for details on packaging for Ubuntu:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide/CompleteLook at the Solarwolf package for Ubuntu for a current example of a pygame application to base your package on:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/games/solarwolf--
Regards,
Wayne Koorts
Registered Linux User #330079
http://www.wkoorts.com