OpenSUSE Install :: Sharing Data Between System(s) And MS Windows XP?

Is there an actual How-To or something like it about sharing data between linux system(s) and MS Windows XP?I do not think there is a golden path but maybe a list of possibilities and their pros and contras would be fine. As I understood there are different ways of sharing data (and so of setting the partitions)

1. Accessing the data of a MS Windows (NTFS) partition from a linux system (contra: possible data loss/data corruption?).

2. Accessing the data of a linux (ext3) partition form a Microsoft system (XP) (contra: possible data loss/data corruption?).

3. Sharing a data partition (FAT ?) (contra: problems with large files).

4. Visualization (contra1: If the main system gets broken, the guest is broken, too?; contra2: not so easy?; contra3: windows male ware in linux?).

I am thinking about reorganizing my hole system of sharing data and of partitions (including my NTFS partition for XP data and FAT partition for data shared with XP and linux).Now I am using mostly a FAT partition for sharing data but this seems to me not the way (for big files and especially because of data security).

I thought of making my /home partition bigger and use a windows program to get excess to ext3/ext4 from MS XP. I also thought of deleting my hole NTFS data partition and use only /home with document-folders etc. for each user / for the linux users and for the Mircosoft users. But this seems not so wise jet from I have read (at least not with an ext4 data partition):

[all variants] ext4 support on Windows XP - Ubuntu Forums
Ext2read - View ext2/3/4 partitions from Windows