partition setup questions

Preparing to setup a new laptop HDD. My plan is to create a multiboot
system, being multiboot is preferred over VM's. The current setup is as
follows:

PRIMARY: 510mb (boot partition, few tools)
EXTENDED: W95, W98, W2K, XP

Works great!

Want to add Win7 RC1 and Linux so there's some questions:

1) being I can configure drivespace, does it make sense to install these
OS's in an extended partition as well?
2) would it make sense to configure the drive so it has three primary
partitions and keeping the above setup, then put W7 and Linux into the
other two primary partitions?
3) is it true there is a limit on the number of primary partition on a
drive? if so how many? (three?)

Lastly, is there ANY advantage to a home user in having multiple primary
partitions as opposed to one primary and one extended? Any drive
performance issues depending on partition setups?

Thanks a lot!

"someone watching" <nospam@bogusaddress.com> wrote in message
news:uU%23FL2J5JHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Preparing to setup a new laptop HDD. My plan is to create a multiboot
> system, being multiboot is preferred over VM's. The current setup is as
> follows:
>
> PRIMARY: 510mb (boot partition, few tools)
> EXTENDED: W95, W98, W2K, XP
>
> Works great!
>
> Want to add Win7 RC1 and Linux so there's some questions:
>
> 1) being I can configure drivespace, does it make sense to install these
> OS's in an extended partition as well?
> 2) would it make sense to configure the drive so it has three primary
> partitions and keeping the above setup, then put W7 and Linux into the
> other two primary partitions?
> 3) is it true there is a limit on the number of primary partition on a
> drive? if so how many? (three?)
>
> Lastly, is there ANY advantage to a home user in having multiple primary
> partitions as opposed to one primary and one extended? Any drive
> performance issues depending on partition setups?
>
> Thanks a lot!
>

You can have a total of four primary partitions

win9x can recognize just one of them