Ok Everyone, I'm getting the impression that there is no one place where it is abundantly clear what path you should take with your Droid X if you want the following things:
1. Latest Android version
2. Minimal bloat
3. No/Minimal Motorola BLUR (aka Vanilla)
4. The most hackable situation on your phone (i.e. best bootloader with the highest probability of being unlocked.)
5. Root, deodex, etc
I'm currently running the first 2.2 leak and I'd really like to upgrade to be on par with the OTA upgrade. But, I want to keep my bootloader, root etc so when this thing is broken open, I am in the best position possible. In the iPhone world, the Dev Team calls this "the Jailbreak train."
Could we keep this thread up to date with the current "best practice" ? I volunteer to edit this OP to reflect the advice given.
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Here's the knowledge I'd like to impart as a newbie to Android and the Droid X, to get everyone else up to speed ASAP:
[Glossary of Terms]
Android - Your phone's distribution (distro) of Linux. Created by a company purchased by Google. Runs on phones created by a cabal of manufacturers and software companies called "The Open Handset Alliance"
{Links Forthcoming}
Kernel - The core of the Linux operating system common to almost all Linux-powered devices. Usually this is running actively on a system and cannot be modified while the phone is operating normally.
Eclair - (or 2.1) - the release of "Android Linux" from Google, version 2.1 is often referred to by its codename of Eclair. {Link Coming}
FroYo - (or 2.2) - the most recent release of "Android Linux" from Google. Version number is 2.2 but this does not correspond to the Linux kernel used or the version of software released for our phones by Motorola. {Link Coming}
Vanilla - (Lingo) - This is a term used to describe the unaltered versions of Google's Linux distro for phones called collectively "Android."
BLUR - The customizations and additions added by Motorola to the Google "Vanilla" Android releases. Seen by most in this community as unnecessary duplication of functionality, and generally performing poorer than the Vanilla counterparts already included with Android releases. Motorola is planning to drop the BLUR name, but continue this practice.
SDK - (Android SDK) - Software Development Kit - this is a collection of software released for free by Google's Android division that has the intended purpose of allowing developers to easily write programs to work with Android phones, and to test them in a virtual phone on their workstation. In this community we use pieces from this SDK to work on our phones.
Shell - This is a multi-meaning term. A Shell in this context is a command line interface to work on a machine. Shell is usually used when referring to a Linux or Unix-based machine. This would be similar to a "dos prompt" on a windows-based machine. The commands are quite different than MSDOS, however.
ADB - Android Developer Bridge - This is a sort of shell, (or command line) to work on an Android-powered phone from a computer. It has the ability to modify the phone's content by "pushing" and "pulling" files, as well as other important functions like giving you "shell" access to the phone.
root - (Lingo) - This technically means "Superuser Access" when used as a noun, and "Achieving Superuser Access" when used as a verb. Most phones ship without the owner's ability to get Superuser access out of the box. When you "root" the phone you are giving yourself the ability to give other programs the highest-level of acesss to the linux system. The term comes from what this user is usually called in a Linux or Unix environment "root." This is not to be confused with the term "root" used to refer to the top-most level in the phone's file structure ( "/" )
root - (proper) The topmost level in the phone's file structure. Symbolically represented in Linux systems as "/" e.g. "/etc/" refers to the folder called "etc" in the root folder.
...still working - I'm on a lot of redbull and OCD at the moment.
1. Latest Android version
2. Minimal bloat
3. No/Minimal Motorola BLUR (aka Vanilla)
4. The most hackable situation on your phone (i.e. best bootloader with the highest probability of being unlocked.)
5. Root, deodex, etc
I'm currently running the first 2.2 leak and I'd really like to upgrade to be on par with the OTA upgrade. But, I want to keep my bootloader, root etc so when this thing is broken open, I am in the best position possible. In the iPhone world, the Dev Team calls this "the Jailbreak train."
Could we keep this thread up to date with the current "best practice" ? I volunteer to edit this OP to reflect the advice given.
-----
Here's the knowledge I'd like to impart as a newbie to Android and the Droid X, to get everyone else up to speed ASAP:
[Glossary of Terms]
Android - Your phone's distribution (distro) of Linux. Created by a company purchased by Google. Runs on phones created by a cabal of manufacturers and software companies called "The Open Handset Alliance"
{Links Forthcoming}
Kernel - The core of the Linux operating system common to almost all Linux-powered devices. Usually this is running actively on a system and cannot be modified while the phone is operating normally.
Eclair - (or 2.1) - the release of "Android Linux" from Google, version 2.1 is often referred to by its codename of Eclair. {Link Coming}
FroYo - (or 2.2) - the most recent release of "Android Linux" from Google. Version number is 2.2 but this does not correspond to the Linux kernel used or the version of software released for our phones by Motorola. {Link Coming}
Vanilla - (Lingo) - This is a term used to describe the unaltered versions of Google's Linux distro for phones called collectively "Android."
BLUR - The customizations and additions added by Motorola to the Google "Vanilla" Android releases. Seen by most in this community as unnecessary duplication of functionality, and generally performing poorer than the Vanilla counterparts already included with Android releases. Motorola is planning to drop the BLUR name, but continue this practice.
SDK - (Android SDK) - Software Development Kit - this is a collection of software released for free by Google's Android division that has the intended purpose of allowing developers to easily write programs to work with Android phones, and to test them in a virtual phone on their workstation. In this community we use pieces from this SDK to work on our phones.
Shell - This is a multi-meaning term. A Shell in this context is a command line interface to work on a machine. Shell is usually used when referring to a Linux or Unix-based machine. This would be similar to a "dos prompt" on a windows-based machine. The commands are quite different than MSDOS, however.
ADB - Android Developer Bridge - This is a sort of shell, (or command line) to work on an Android-powered phone from a computer. It has the ability to modify the phone's content by "pushing" and "pulling" files, as well as other important functions like giving you "shell" access to the phone.
root - (Lingo) - This technically means "Superuser Access" when used as a noun, and "Achieving Superuser Access" when used as a verb. Most phones ship without the owner's ability to get Superuser access out of the box. When you "root" the phone you are giving yourself the ability to give other programs the highest-level of acesss to the linux system. The term comes from what this user is usually called in a Linux or Unix environment "root." This is not to be confused with the term "root" used to refer to the top-most level in the phone's file structure ( "/" )
root - (proper) The topmost level in the phone's file structure. Symbolically represented in Linux systems as "/" e.g. "/etc/" refers to the folder called "etc" in the root folder.
...still working - I'm on a lot of redbull and OCD at the moment.
