I am used to using / to install a linux distro. I have been wondering about /boot and when it is used and why it is used. Thanks!!

/boot is where the bootable programs are kept. These usually include all of your kernels, grub, and perhaps some memory test bootables. /boot is generally only accessed during boot.

/boot is rarely ever set up as a mount point. There was a time when some hard drives could only boot on the first part of the drive. If that was the case you would put /boot as a separate partition at the beginning of the drive in order to be able to boot. It has been years since that type of drive has been made. Other than that I know of no reason to make /boot a mount point.

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Steve Stites

Well, I use /boot as a mount point because I can use the same /boot filesystem for different releases.

/boot itself doesn't care what distribution you are using. All that is required is that the boot program (grub/lilo/grub2/...) have access to it to load a kernel, load an initrd, and pass parameters to the kernel when started.

Thus, you can use the SAME /boot for multiple distributions, using different kernels, and different initrd files, and still have one boot menu.