The boot process is similar for all machines, regardless which distribution is installed. Consider the following example hard disk:

                              +----------------+
                              |      MBR       |
                              +----------------+
                              |  Partition 1:  |
                              | Linux root (/) |
                              |   containing   |
                              |   kernel and   |
                              |     system.    |
                              +----------------+
                              |  Partition 2:  |
                              |   Linux swap   |
                              +----------------+
                              |  Partition 3:  |
                              |   Windows 3.0  |
                              |  (last booted  |
                              |    in 1992)    |
                              +----------------+

First, the computer's BIOS reads the first few sectors of your hard disk. These sectors contain a very small program, called the "Master Boot Record," or "MBR." The MBR has stored the location of the Linux kernel on the hard disk (partition 1 in the example above), so it loads the kernel into memory and starts it.