Will the Due be a dud?

My guess would be the same, difficulty getting the IDE working with the different architecture types.

What does 'bother' me (not really, but I can't think of a better word) is that they are not releasing ANY information.
There is no shame in problems, most people here are developpers themselves and know you can run into problems when using totally different hardware than you are used to.
If they have issues, discussing it with the community might offer the solution, since there are a lot of people here that know the IDE inside and out, know the hardware, memorized the datasheet of the new cpu already (ok maybe that's exegurated, but you know...) so it might offer that one solution they are looking for.