Windows XP + multiple linux distributions?

[serengeor]

I would make 2 partitions, Install windows xp on 1 partition, on the second one I would install multiple Linux distributions.
Is it possible that multiple linux distributions would share the same files?
If it is possible, would it cause any loss in performance?

PS. My XP is going crazy that's why I taught I would reinstall windows and also have linux for fun, and some other stuff

[kazymjir]

It's not possible. Different distributions have other configs, rc scripts. Installing new distro will overwrite old distro configs.
It's possible to run different kernels, but not different distributions.
If you need to have many, different distros, a good solution is VM.

[serengeor]

It's not possible. Different distributions have other configs, rc scripts. Installing new distro will overwrite old distro configs.

Why would it overwrite it?, Windows XP and ubuntu can work together pretty well...
And why would configs,rc scripts matter if all I need to access is My media, text files etc.

I know that the apps may not work on different distros just because of the dependancies.

[hybrid]

Well, your question was simply underspecified. It was not clear what documents or files should be shared. That's why you get problematic answers. Just write more about your requirements, and you'll get better answers.
For documents you should probably just add another NTFS or FAT volume, then you can access them from Windows as well. Or use a NAS, which is completely independent of your computer.

[kazymjir]

Serengeor, if I good understand you, you want to install many distros on one partition?

If you only want to share files between Windows and GNU/Linux distros, just create second FAT partition.
Under Windows it will be second drive, under GNU/Linux you can mount it to ~/share/.
It's better to mount shared FAT into ~/some_folder/ than directly to ~, because under Windows you will see many GNU/Linux config files (with . (dot) prefix), also, under GNU/Linux those configs will be without any protection (FAT cannot containt informations about priviledges to files, like EXT).

[CuteAlien]

I use FAT and Ext2 partitions for exchange. There exist tools to read/write Ext2 from Windows, which worked so far in all cases for me except with Visual Studio which sometimes won't work with it for some unknown reason. And I also do that like aek mentioned and mount them to a subfolder of my home.

[serengeor]

Thank you for your atention, would it cause any performance issues when using Mounted FAT partition?

[randomMesh]

Thank you for your atention, would it cause any performance issues when using Mounted FAT partition?

Don't use FAT, it's ancient and has many disadvantages (max. file size 4 GB, etc). Linux can safely read and write NTFS.
And remember to create an additional swap partition for Linux.

[Armen138]

i have no issues reading/writing to NTFS partitions(ntfs-3g). it may be smart to have a separate partition to use as 'shared space' and symlink it to wherever you need in each OS(not sure if XP supports symlinks, use shortcuts if not)