Where Kernels are Stored - boot

The kernel resides in /boot, together with other boot-related files. Most of there include the kernel version, major version, minor revision and patch number.

initrd.img-version_kernel: Image that loads in RAM to boot the system.

vmlinuz-version_kernel: Here's the compressed system kernel.

grub: Configuration directory for the grub2 bootloader.

Because it is a critical feature of the operating system, more than one kernel and its associated files are kept in /boot in case the default one becomes faulty and we have to fall back on a previous version to — at least — be able to boot the system up and fix it.