I don't know if I'm missing it in the configuration file or not, but I know when I've setup phpMyAdmin from scratch, it allowed for multiple servers (more than just localhost).
Is this not possible with the way XAMPP does it? I noticed there were are few parts of the config.inc.php file that said it was commented out by XAMPP Security.
Nevertheless, XAMPP works fine on my Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS Dapper Drake box and Debian 4.0 Etch boxes!!!