What's the story wih NTFS? Why are there so many problems resizing it? why can't it be writen to (at least not by default)?

First Microsoft does not release NTFS source code info.
Second Microsoft is always tweaking the NTFS structure bit by bit which may make the ntfs patches not work correctly. They may say it is NTFS version 5 but there are many subversion patches applied. It only takes a few millseconds to trash an entire partition.
As for the write since it is not the real code it may not be perfect. It has to be reengineered from scratch to keep from patent infridgements. Not the right word but the only thing that comes to mind.
Distro providers supply some of the none safe basics apps and features. Elimitnates liability. Same as providing XMMS but no MP3 support since it is not open GPL.

Brian1

NTFS is a proprietary closed filesystem. Linux programmers have had to try to reverse engineer any interactions they need. Resize is pretty reliable nowadays (I use the GParted Live CD and haven't had a problem yet -- as long as you defrag and disable virtual memory before doing it).

Similarly, write support is still considered experimental because everything was reverse engineered. So it is possible you could screw up your NTFS partition. I believe that currently the FUSE drivers are pretty reliable, but I just avoid writing to NTFS like the plague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_NTFS
http://www.linux-ntfs.org/

So really, until M$ opens it's filesystem, the developers are doing the best they can.

Don't see a need to touch it in the Linux side. If I have a valuable data in a MS system I keep it in a Fat32 partition accessible by all OSs. Therefore the data inside my NTFS partition are mainly system files which are useless to Linux any way.

Linux can read data off a NTFS partition and store it on a non-NTFS partition all the time. So to me altering a data in a NTFS partition is changing a MS system file, say a XP, inside Linux. I don't have such a need.

A user who falls for M$'s trap of embedding his/her data inside the operating system depends on M$ permanently because the data dies with the system. Alternatively he/she may like virus and there is nothing better than mixing the personal data with the system files in the same partition ready for the onslaught.