Root Why Root?

[SMarkRobinson]

Tuesday, 14 September, I will be a new Droid owner with a "Droid X"

I've been reading a lot about "Gotta root my phone!" So, I have a few questions:

1. What advantages are there to rooting your phone?
2. What disadvantages are there to doing this?
3. If you HAVE rooted,
a. How long ago?
b. Have you had issues since?
4. If you have NOT rooted - why not?
5. If I root, I'm considering the "One Click" software. How dependable is this with the Droid X? Yes, unfortunately, I do have Windows on my computer (I hate Microsoft!)

 

[D13]

I am too biased so I will let someone else chime in
Basically the answer to all your questions would be
Root your phone

 

[nitsuj17]

I think to really get the full android experience you need to root. Since taking the plunge and rooting I can't even imagine going back. Wifi tethernandroid backups removing verizon s awful crapware and speeding up the phone.

I think if you are remotely inclined to root than do it. Its basically impossible to totally brick your phone with the sbf file

 

[rkid007]

i am kind of in the same boat as the op. i actually did easyroot method today just on a whim.

i was originally interested in it but held off because froyo was around the corner (a month ago) but decided to do it.

i guess i am wondering what to do with it now that its rooted. i dont want to go too crazy with it because i do want the ota froyo and want to switch back pretty easily to do so, but i am interested in increasing the performance.

my battery tends to be average to pretty good as is:

more than half the time i will unplug at 6am and plug in at 9pm with 50% remaining on battery (gmail, some web, about 50-75 corporate emails, some calls and texts)

if theres a way to increase the battery, or make it perform better i am all for it.

what are some suggestions from the rooters?

thanks

 

[tonyb81]

I just picked up a Droid X today and probably won't ever root it, it is fast enough for what I need it to do.

I owned a Droid Eris, and rooted that phone, mainly because it was too underpowered and didn't have as much memory. A phone like that, it made sense to root it. But with my Droid X it doesn't make sense to me, its fast as hell to begin with and there isn't enough bloat on it to make me worry about freeing up app memory seeing that the phone comes with 8gb internal, and a 16gb micro sd card.

The allure of rooting a phone and having so much control is nice, but I think thats more suited for less powerful phones.

 

[Zumi]

i am kind of in the same boat as the op. i actually did easyroot method today just on a whim.

i was originally interested in it but held off because froyo was around the corner (a month ago) but decided to do it.

i guess i am wondering what to do with it now that its rooted. i dont want to go too crazy with it because i do want the ota froyo and want to switch back pretty easily to do so, but i am interested in increasing the performance.

my battery tends to be average to pretty good as is:

more than half the time i will unplug at 6am and plug in at 9pm with 50% remaining on battery (gmail, some web, about 50-75 corporate emails, some calls and texts)

if theres a way to increase the battery, or make it perform better i am all for it.

what are some suggestions from the rooters?

thanks

Setcpu, which is root-only, makes my battery last for days doing almost exactly what you're doing. It does so by lowering the cpu speed during certain conditions (300 mhz when screen is off, batt lower than 30% etc etc) which in turn will make my battery drain a lot less.

I've been rooted for a few weeks now and just delved into different ROMs and Themes, and let me tell you, it makes this phone a whole lot more interesting than it was before, and that's saying a lot.

 

[Zumi]

I just picked up a Droid X today and probably won't ever root it, it is fast enough for what I need it to do.

I owned a Droid Eris, and rooted that phone, mainly because it was too underpowered and didn't have as much memory. A phone like that, it made sense to root it. But with my Droid X it doesn't make sense to me, its fast as hell to begin with and there isn't enough bloat on it to make me worry about freeing up app memory seeing that the phone comes with 8gb internal, and a 16gb micro sd card.

The allure of rooting a phone and having so much control is nice, but I think thats more suited for less powerful phones.

I agree the phone is fast in it's original form (even quicker with just adding ADW or Launcher Pro), but I've seen my phone go leaps and bounds above the Nexus One on 2.2, which was considered the fastest on Quadrant. This makes me feel a whole lot better inside just knowing my phone is the quickest on the market. Call it peace of mind if you will.

 

[nitsuj17]

And don't forget custom theme! For those of us who can't stand the awful motorola status bar you can ditch it

 

[hahaha what]

idk with pdanet and the phone already being quick enough for my needs rooting seems pointless to me. its cool that the option is there though

 

[izomiac]

I've been rooted for a while, can't really see any disadvantages other than it gives you enough rope to hang yourself. Here are the main reasons I'd say to root:

• Titanium Backup, Ad-Free, and a couple other root-only apps that are nice.
• The ability to remove some pre-installed bloatware.
• build.prop edits
• Themes

Honestly, I can see where someone might not be compelled to root, since Android is open enough by default that it's not really necessary. OTOH, the only real disadvantage is that you can screw up and break something, so it's relatively low risk. (At least I assume so, lol, really I have no idea how prone to that sort of thing you are.)

 

[Deleted User]

The only reasons I rooted were to remove the pre-installed apps (I'm a little compulsive about that kind of stuff, it drives me up a wall to see resources claimed by something I have no interest in and don't want), and to turn my notification bar from white to black.

That's it, but that's the great thing about rooting your phone. It doesn't do anything by itself. It provides you the opportunity to do something if you want to.

Let me be clear: rooting does not do anything to your phone. You will not have issues because you rooted your phone. You could have issues depending on what you choose to do after rooting. All rooting does is provide the ability to gain superuser privileges.

It's like being handed the keys to a locked door with a lot of knives in it. Sure, you could go into that room and start screwing around and hurt yourself. But if you're even somewhat reasonable, you'll know that you should be careful around sharp stuff, and knives are very useful tools.

The "Universalandroot" one-click application works great, it's reliable.