Why start the first partition at 2 MIB, why not at any multiple of 4096 bytes ...

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

Why start the first partition at 2 MIB, why not at any multiple of 4096 bytes 
that leaves room for whatever may need to be at the beginning of the disk 
(like maybe the MBR, or LILO, or ???)?

I've seen the advice to align partitions properly by starting them at a 
multiple of 4096 bytes, and I have (I think) a reasonable understanding of why 
(based on a sketch in the Wikipedia article on advanced partitioning).

But then I see the advice to start the first partition at 2 MiB -- why not at 
some lower multiple of 4096 while leaving room for anything that may need to 
be at the very beginning of the disk?  (I haven't found an explanation for 
that.)