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Root Convince me, why is rooting "just better"

C

caustic

Guest
I originally started this as a response to a topic asking about rooting, but I think it is a little long and a little off topic from the original post, so I started my own thread.

I want the rooting community here to convince me of the value of rooting. I've seen a general attitude that rooting is this amazing thing that will turn your tiny little fossil fueled brick into a cold fusion reactor. Well, maybe not quite that far, but the sentiments expressed in this thread:

http://androidforums.com/android-news-talk/104306-does-your-g1-suck.html#post968116

The person is having phone trouble, will rooting magically fix this? I understand perfectly that rooting can open up lots of capability, but for me it sits right alongside what people say about Android's sister Linux base. Sure, I could throw boring old Windows off my computer and install the latest version of Linux with all this openness and all this capability, but to what end for me?

To quote Apple (*hack cough* sorry about that) "it just works." Some of the custom ROMs are a little better optimized than the current one, and come with some neat features like overclocking, aps2SD, and built in tether, but I never really think of a time when these things are essential. My Droid seems to work rather fine at 550 mHz, I never use tether (wifi or wired), and I just can't care too much about having apps2SD as long as I still have a fair amount of internal memory left. My Droid works, and works well.

I want a smart phone for browsing the web and sending IMs on the go, using Google navigator and all those other little goodies Android has to offer. As useful as it can be to someone, I just don't see a real need to be constantly flashing ROMs or to have Busybox at my disposal on my PHONE. And yet, I get the impression that if I even suggested that I'm actually happy with my phone doing what it does and I see no real personal use for rooting my phone, that people would talk down to me like I'm some sort of idiot for making this terrible decision. I'm reminded of the old Redhat Linux install screen "Would you buy a car with the hood welded shut? That's what it's like using a closed source OS." Sure my hood isn't welded shut, but what can I do when I open it, besides check a few things like oil level.

Wow, this thing got longer than I thought. Anyway, I want people to show me the magic of rooting. You all had 2.1 months before the rest of us, sure, but I had browser multitouch with Dolphin and I hate live wallpapers. I see several posts in here about people using Bugless Beast or CyanogenMod who have trouble with certain apps running or updating properly; my boring ol' unrooted phone has all the apps I want and they all work swimmingly. SHOW ME THE MONEY erm MAGIC.

Not to say that I'm against the idea, but every time I want to root and install a custom ROM on my Droid, there's always something that I need my phone for the next day, and I would be completely screwed if something didn't go right. If anything, the biggest reason I can think of for rooting is so I can finally get JIT on my phone.
 
I use to be on the fence about rooting my Droid. I was thinking the same thing as you "Why" my phone works and it works well the way it is.

Then one day I just went for it (after reading post after post on what was involved for weeks) I voided my warranty and rooted. I can say now I should have not waited that long.

I'm not going to talk down and say your making a terrible decision for not rooting your phone (It's not for everyone) if you happy with your phone the way it is keep it that way, but if you really want a phone that is 100% yours and not just like the guy standing next to you root it.

I too thought I don't need wifi tethering but it has come in very handy a few times. As for changing ROM all the time, what can I say I like to try new things but when I find one I really like I keep it for a few weeks.

I will say the Froyo 2.2 with Flash is awesome I'm running Kangerade V1.1 and have never been happer with my phone. Before I got my Droid and rooted I use to always upgrade phones when a new better one came out (Not anymore)
 
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If anything, the biggest reason I can think of for rooting is so I can finally get JIT on my phone.

This should be a reason enough for you not to...I've heard so many bad things about JIT! Obviously, don't take this comment to heart because I have never used it; on the sole fact of what I hear around other Droid communities..."it's not worth the hassle" is the conclusion i have come to.

I rooted because I get bored easily with, well, everything. I want the greatest, latest thing and with root...i can have that. Like you said, I had 2.1 before everyone, and currently have 2.2 before non-rooted Droid users.

I thought 550mHz was plenty too to be honest, but when you bump it up to 1.0gHz and higher...you DO notice a difference.

Like you've, indirectly, said: root is not for everyone...and I personally think you shouldn't. You don't have a need/want to. I did, not a need, but a want to root. You should definitely have more "wants" from rooting than those things you listed in your OP of "no real reason to root"-type things.

Sorry I did not convince you to root, it's just I think you don't need to...like I said, you don't have a want/need to..therefore don't. And if you're worried about the warranty voiding, then there are ways (RSDlite...not preferable, but works) to go back to "Complete Stock 2.0 without root" and then do an OTA update to 2.1 if you ever need to take in your phone...also there are 2 stock ROMS in ROM Manager to go back to stock.

P.S. I didn't bash you for not rooting lol :D
 
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the information is all out there my friend :search: this is a personal decision, I rooted because for me things like apps2sd and stuff were necessary, including the wireless tether, which I use at work when I have no internet connection and have to access data.

to be a bit severe, I will not tell you which shirt to wear this morning, it is up to you :cool:

Thank you for saying the "S" word - I got b!tched at by a supposed web board owner when I told him to search an easy, overly threaded topic. LOL
 
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I've kind of always felt that anyone who needed to be persuaded to root was likely a bad candidate...it's not all up-side, especially if you start tweaking, trying new ROMs, playing around w/stuff. You can get yourself into situations where your phone is down for anywhere from a few minutes to maybe an hour or so.

If you want a totally dependable appliance that just works, there's no need to root. Stick with stock, 2.2 is coming pretty soon as a general release w/faster performance, and new features.

Finally, JIT is incompatible w/more phones than it works with - rooting w/a main goal to be able to use JIT is a bit of a fool's errand, as you are more likely to not be able to run JIT successfully.
 
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In other threads I've seen a lot of "Well I honestly can't see why you wouldn't want to root," and those are the people I'm more looking for a response from.

I'm not so much looking for people to tell me the extra things I can do while rooted, I'm well aware of lots of them. I'm more interested in why I'm being an obvious idiot for not doing it XD
 
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Oh surrre, NOW all the nice people talk about root, where are the condescending jerks when I need them!

In all seriousness though, I would root, except I couldn't afford to have anything happen to my phone. I have no replacement, and I'm constantly using this thing. I'm aware that it's much easier these days, but there are still things that go wrong, and I'd be SOL if any of that happened to me
 
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I would honestly say though, if you learn how to backup everything the right way (once you are brave enough to root) most things are a breeze. And if there is an issue *usually* a restore will get you back and running - so it's a nice safety net.

Saying "yes root, you will be fine" is like me telling you to put a supercharger on your car because you will be much faster, your 0-60 will be better, your quarter mile time will be better and your top speed will go up. Sure this is true, but it voids your warranty and if you don't know how to fix it when it breaks, you are SOL. Not only are you not fast anymore, but you don't even have a car to drive.
You must be comfortable with your "mods" to accept that things can and will go wrong when you toy with it.
See what I mean?
 
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Oh surrre, NOW all the nice people talk about root, where are the condescending jerks when I need them!

In all seriousness though, I would root, except I couldn't afford to have anything happen to my phone. I have no replacement, and I'm constantly using this thing. I'm aware that it's much easier these days, but there are still things that go wrong, and I'd be SOL if any of that happened to me
If your careful and do things right, you wont mess it up, and besides, if u "brick" it, you can always run rsd lite and get it back to normal. IMO there are plenty of reasons to be rooted, froyo, flash player, wifi tether, oc'ing and the list goes on and on. But ultimately the choice is yours. Oh and btw, I would also be sol if I messed my phone up, but I've been doing this stuff with my phone since January and it is better now than it was back then. But as I said, its your decision.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
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AMEN HALELUJIAH BROTHER PREACH!

My Droid is going fine on its ROM and at 1.0 ghz... BUT I am begining to think that APPLE will open source the iPhone on Verizon before I get Google Listen working again! Bummer as I miss White Roof Radio!

I have ran JIT on every ROM I have had with not one issue, but a friend of mine could never use it until Froyo, each Droid is different.
 
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It was what people with actual senses of humor call a joke. To get sociological up in here, there are always elitists for which there is no rational explanation. Just like people who claim you are wasting your Ferrari if you don't drive it like you stole it. I am one of these people and I understand it is irrational, it is truly about your level of commitment about maintaining your phone and your responsibility level for it working as well. There is no mystery here.
 
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I rooted during the 2.0.1 days. My stock phone didn't always run so good. I rooted basically because I had too much time on my hands one day. My rooted phone was no less stable than stock (never overclocked). I was more intrigued by the aesthetics of the phone and even bought a copy of photoshop so I could do some my own themeing.

When 2.1 came out battery life improved significantly and evrything was stable so why go back.

Now Froyo (which I believe has JIT native), forget about going back, stock clock freuency rocks.

If you can wait for 2.2 that's cool.

Oh yeah, how do you like Flash on your phone? Oh wait you don't have it yet.
 
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To quote Apple (*hack cough* sorry about that) "it just works." Some of the custom ROMs are a little better optimized than the current one, and come with some neat features like overclocking, aps2SD, and built in tether, but I never really think of a time when these things are essential. My Droid seems to work rather fine at 550 mHz, I never use tether (wifi or wired), and I just can't care too much about having apps2SD as long as I still have a fair amount of internal memory left. My Droid works, and works well.

Yes, it just works. Of course, if it doesn't work, you aren't holding it the right way, aren't rubbing the baby Buddha's fat round rotund stomach in the correct formation, aren't creating the correct seismographic energy to help prevent underwater oil spillage and simply cannot walk on water.

Oh, er, I mean... No one should ever be forcing someone else to do something they are not comfortable with. That being said, though, it is a fair assessment that a lot of people using Android based phones are those that like to live on the edge, those that like bleeding edge software, those that beta test a lot.

The ability to do things with a rooted phone that you cannot with a non-rooted phone are way more than just Apps2SD, tethering (which I never use either) and the like. With my rooted phone, for example, I can:

  • Clear my cache storage areas when my phone starts to act a wee bit sluggish after not having power cycled for 6 days, using instantaneous WiFI access for 75% of my 'uptime', accumulating a ***LOT*** of junk, tmp and cache files...
  • Monitor the temperature of my CPU - as opposed to the battery temperature - which is highly important as I live in Middle GA, where the temperatures during the day time are, currently, 90degF an above - daily. This may not seem like it is important, but I have the Car Dock, and it is mounted to my windshield, and my poor little DROID, sitting there in the hot sun, playing Pandora tunes and (especially) when Navigating, just gets too hot to deal with - even at stock voltages and clocks with the stock kernel....
  • Using Titanium backup (which I affectionately call TiBu) I can make backups of all my apps and system settings - makes for an easier life if something does go wrong and I am forced to reload an older backup of my OS.
  • Use ROM Manager to check out new ROMs and easily make backups of current ROMs, plus install new kernels, themes, etc.
  • Use drocap2 to take quick screen grabs to post here.
  • Use the terminal to run specific commands to remove things like Amazon MP3 and Corporate email, which I will not be using any time soon....
  • Use the app Quick boot to quickly be able to boot into recovery, or just reboot the phone, whenever I want to.



I want a smart phone for browsing the web and sending IMs on the go, using Google navigator and all those other little goodies Android has to offer. As useful as it can be to someone, I just don't see a real need to be constantly flashing ROMs or to have Busybox at my disposal on my PHONE. And yet, I get the impression that if I even suggested that I'm actually happy with my phone doing what it does and I see no real personal use for rooting my phone, that people would talk down to me like I'm some sort of idiot for making this terrible decision. I'm reminded of the old Redhat Linux install screen "Would you buy a car with the hood welded shut? That's what it's like using a closed source OS." Sure my hood isn't welded shut, but what can I do when I open it, besides check a few things like oil level.

That is you. I live for beta testing and pushing my hardware to its limits - to see just how much I can get installed and running stable on my phone - to get the absolute most functionality out of it.

To me, a smartphone is much more than just a phone that can navigate, make / answer calls, and send SMS. It allows me to:

  • stay in touch with clients,
  • monitor phone calls to / from them for billable hours,
  • monitor my website(s),
  • make changes,
  • post blogs,
  • send / receive email,
  • read new and interesting tech articles,
  • then tweet about them,
  • remote into my machines at home and grab a file that I really need now,
  • monitor my favorite sports teams,
  • monitor my finances using Mint,
  • check the latest stock prices and have intelligent discussions about commodities,
  • plan and execute workout sessions,
  • check if a picture (hanging on a wall) is level,
  • go GeoCaching,
  • capture someone's business card for later entry into my contacts when I am on the run,
  • find my Congressman's email address to let him know he is a moron for voting against his constituents,
  • tune my guitar,
  • check the sound level of the noises I am hearing from the construction across the street,
  • open, edit, and send Word and Excel docs,
  • view PDFs,
  • share files,
  • even discern between edible and inedbile types of mushrooms....

And that doesn't even cover 1/4 of my apps.

Wow, this thing got longer than I thought. Anyway, I want people to show me the magic of rooting. You all had 2.1 months before the rest of us, sure, but I had browser multitouch with Dolphin and I hate live wallpapers. I see several posts in here about people using Bugless Beast or CyanogenMod who have trouble with certain apps running or updating properly; my boring ol' unrooted phone has all the apps I want and they all work swimmingly. SHOW ME THE MONEY erm MAGIC.

I guarantee that you cannot have the apps that I have and still have a functioning phone. I have 150+ apps installed right now - and my phone flies. It flies so fast that I even have it connected to my Wireless N WiFi connection. I am getting ~9 Mbps on my phone for download speeds. Reading Manga right now takes almost no time from page to page to page (yet another app).

Not to say that I'm against the idea, but every time I want to root and install a custom ROM on my Droid, there's always something that I need my phone for the next day, and I would be completely screwed if something didn't go right. If anything, the biggest reason I can think of for rooting is so I can finally get JIT on my phone.

Rooting will allow you to move to 2.2 - and that, in and of itself, is a blessing, as long as your phone is not one of the ones that simple does not like 2.2.

Not.
One.
Bit.

However, the beauty of rooting is that it also puts the mechanisms in place to allow you to revert in as little as 3 minutes flat to your previous, worked-fine-just-before-I-started-this-whole-rooting-process, awesome ROM that you have now. That way, even if it b0rks, you're safe.

Now, if my rejoinder does not convince you, then good - b/c I ain't telling you that you should root.

I'm just trying to show you what you can't do without it.

The choice is yours.
 
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It was what people with actual senses of humor call a joke. To get sociological up in here, there are always elitists for which there is no rational explanation. Just like people who claim you are wasting your Ferrari if you don't drive it like you stole it. I am one of these people and I understand it is irrational, it is truly about your level of commitment about maintaining your phone and your responsibility level for it working as well. There is no mystery here.

Never can be sure with the internet. What I figure is a joke half the time people were actually being serious... best to play it safe XD
 
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