At one time I had 11 different Linux versions installed here on old clunker PC's. I set them up as multi-boot computers, and the main one had 5 versions on it and others had 3 or 4 versions on them.
I sometimes had to swap video, audio, and network cards around until each PC had Linux versions on it that were happy with that hardware combination. The problem is that the hardware vendors don't publish the source code for their drivers, so the Linux packagers have to reverse engineer them as best they can.
No operating system vendor can keep up with every possible hardware combination, especially with the profusion of integrated motherboards that are around. Sometimes I had to disable the on-board audio, video, or network subsystems and plug in a conventional I/O card that the OS could recognize.
Anyway, I learned a LOT setting up 6 PC's multi-booting a dozen different operating systems. And yes, most Linux versions are more fiddly and twiddly than most Windows versions. I've reduced the number of Linux versions to about 6, based on the vendor and Linux community support for that version. Some versions don't see much progress and expansion a year or two after they were introduced. Those "clunkers" come with the usual basic program assortment, but a year later nothing much more is offered. Other versions have many thousands of program packages to choose from, and continually add more. I went with the well supported brands.
Cool. I've got a script running around here somewhere that allows me to multi-boot many different Live CD's off of one DVD. The disc boots up to GRUB, and you just choose which distro you want--boom--and it boots up.
I've installed up to 15 Live CD versions on one disc before.