What exactly are the problems with the fonts and the layers?
Regarding layers, the grouping structure should import well in Illustrator. Usually you get one main group and then a couple sub-groups (wich you can treat as layers). The layer names aren't preserved, but if you write the layer names into the id of the groups in the XML-editor, those id values will be preserved in Illustrator. Of course only certain characters are allowed in ids and they can't start with a number.
What exactly are the font issues? Wrong font? Or are they more like text issues than font issues? Are you complaining about the treating of multiline text in SVG?
Andreas
OK, the gradients convert using SVG, but the fonts and layers have problems. I can probably work with that by deleting all unrelated layers and saving one layer at a a time, then try finding commonalities between Linux and Windows fonts before designing.