sharing data between windows and linux

One of the problems most "linwin" users(users with linux-windows dual boot config..and who are new to linux) face is transfering data to and from the different filesystems. Thankfully, most of the distros now automatically mount the windows partitions. In Ubuntu 5.10 (the distro I use), you still can't write any data to your partitions. This can be solved by logging in root (you can do so temporarily by typing "su" in the console). Even after doing this, you won't be able to write to NTFS partitions. To do this, you must download and install a package called ntfs-3g. After that, you have to modify your /etc/fstab file. Just change the file system type under the file section from ntfs to ntfs-3g. Reboot your system to see the change.
Accessing your files in linux (in ext2 or ext3 partitions) is much easier. All you have to do is to download an application called Explore2fs. The current version allows you to browse your linux filesystem and export files to your windows filesystem. The latest beta does give an error message sometimes when you try to exit, but it should cause too much problem. This is particularly helpful if you are browsing a support forum using windows and you need to post a config file from linux.