Is a /boot partition necessary anymore?

Solution 1:

If you don't use LVM, root volume encryption, software RAID, etc., and otherwise just have your root volume on a plain-jane filesystem with no intermediate layers, then you don't need it.

Really, the most important files in booting are the kernel image (vmlinuz) and the initramfs image (initrd.img). If both of those (and the GRUB configuration files) are accessible by GRUB with no special handling, then a separate /boot volume is not necessary.

Solution 2:

Generally speaking, unless you're dealing with encryption, or RAID, you don't need a separate /boot partition.

That said, I occasionally find a use for adding a separate /boot partition as a FAT partition. This allows your dual-boot system to make alterations to your GRUB config, so you can create a batch file to shut down windows and alter the default menu choice so that it boots something else next. Most people don't need this, but I've had a few projects which required switching back and forth, and it allows it to be done entirely by script.