if i put linux as the first partition to my hard drive, will windows still overwrite lilo?

if i plan on running only one local user for my distro, can i install all my programs using the "root" user into my local user's "home" directory on a separate partition so that when i install a different distro i don't have to install all my programs again? if so, linux is more awesome than i thought

This is most likely how I'm going to set up my hard drive when it's all said and done..

XP partition
fat-32 partition for files that will be used in XP or linux
swap (linux)
linux install partition
home partition <--- do I need to maket this a separate partition?
root partition <--- do i need to make this a separate partition?
sun OS partition

Is there any order I can put these in to prevent the issue I brought up in the first part of my post? Also, let's say that I installed all my linux programs in the root partition, does that mean if I format and install a different distro on my "linux install partition" that I won't have to reinstall all my programs that are safe and secure on my "root partition"?

I would heartily recommend giving /Home it's own partition.
From my own experience, it's best to put XP on first, let it have the first partition and patch it completely before you install Linux. (One or two of the Microsoft patches will trash the partition table in Linux and the bootloader too. Clicking on the Agree button in the ms update EULA gives Microsoft the right to "disable third party software".
I have installed UT2003 into the /home dir and played it from Mandrake and Fedora depending on which I booted into. I'm not sure if this will work with normal Linux applications.

The main Linux partition is the root partition so a (reasonably) typical home setup (no web hosting or ftp serving et al) would be swap, / (root) and /home
(others may disagree with this)

Hope this helps.

Closed. This is pretty much the same as http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...readid=205536, with a slight rewording. As this has the least answers and is the newer thread, it is being closed.