Initramfs

Imagine your computer is like a toy box and you want to play with a toy but it's buried deep inside the box. You need to dig through all the other toys to find it before you can play with it. In the same way, when your computer starts up, it needs to find all the things it needs to work properly before you can use it.

Initramfs is like a map that helps your computer find everything it needs to start up. It's like a treasure map, showing your computer where to find all the things it needs to start up, like your operating system, drivers, and other important files.

The map is made up of tiny "blocks" of information, each with its own little picture of where something important is located. Your computer carefully follows this map, block by block, until it has found everything it needs to boot up properly.

So, without initramfs, your computer would have to dig through the entire toy box just to find one toy, and when it eventually did find it, it may not have everything it needs to play with it properly. But with initramfs, your computer has a helpful map to guide it to everything it needs, making sure your computer starts up quickly and works properly from the get-go.