Root What made you decide to root?

[BrianJB]

I was always not sure about rooting my phone. My evo was the first android based phone I had ever had, so when I first got it I wanted to take my time learning the system before I did anything.

But I was always scared about rooting because of the dreaded "brick issue". Plus, I never really knew what rooting your phone would allow you to do. There were 2 things that pushed me to root my phone;

1.Waiting FOREVER back in Decemeber for 2.3 to hit our phone (obviously I would have been waiting awhile)
2.This REALLY pissed me off- When all of the rumors of the 2.3 update were going on this past winter Sprint pushed out the "update" which included such great things as "blockbuster" & my personal favorite "nova".

So after that I really started to do my research and decided to root. Once I was actually doing the rooting process I was nervous, but not too bad. Then I just used the stock rooted rom for awhile with all of the bloatware frozen. Finally after a few weeks I decided it was time to flash a custom rom, for some reason that made me nervous as hell. But after than I was "social rom flash addict". I do not do it all of the time, but I will try out a new rom every month or two.

Anyone else have their own personal decisions to root their phone?

 

[Xtremedays]

I had a Hero that I waited about 5 months to root. When I upgraded to the Evo, it was rooted and running a custom rom the next day(I didn't get it til late the night before or it would have been done then )

My reasons.....I wanted to be able to change my phone however I wanted to. Wifi tether is a great option but I rarely use it. I wanted to be able to show my phone and people look at it and wonder why their's doesn't look or act like that.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Bloatware, customization and hotspot for me. Also I did it because I could.

 

[ocnbrze]

i too was coming from a hero. it was a love and hate relationshionship with it. i did not rooted because honestly i really hated the phone and i did not really spend anytime doing it. then i got my evo. oh what a difference that was. then i got bored with it and for me all that bloatware that i did not use i got tired of it quick. i mean who really uses the nascar app. and then they add blockbuster and nova as well. so i rooted my phone. been happy as a clam ever since. (why are clams happy?)

 

[andygu3]

I started with the Hero, in my opinion, the Hero should never have come with the Sense overlay. It always ran better with AOSP roms

So......as soon as I got the Evo, I rooted it and never looked back.


Just to have the power and the capability to change how your phone runs, delete unwanted applications was the biggest draw for me. Plus, it's always nice not to feel so left behind because the next phone has something new.


Big thanks to the developers, because without them, obviously, rooting and roming would not be possible

 

[vmrchitect]

Miui..I was too cheap to buy an iPhone plan

 

[evomattnc]

Miui..I was too cheap to buy an iPhone plan

Lol I hate you for that

 

[Granite1]

I started out with the Hero, and like everyone else I got fed up with a seriously flawed phone. Then I found this forum, and Andy and Don taught me the ropes. So it was natural when I got the evo to root and unleash this beasts true potential.
I really have no desire to upgrade to the 3D, this piece is perfect for me.....fir the time being

 

[Drew5150]

But I was always scared about rooting because of the dreaded "brick issue".

I don't think there is any "brick issue" with the evo. I actually cant recall reading about anyone that has ACTUALLY bricked an EVO.. just saying...


for me it was the ability to to customize the phone anyway I want

 

[frenchy714]

I didn't want to own a phone and be limited to "guest" access so to speak, I wanted "admin" access over my Evo.

 

[Stugg]

I got tired of seeing Blockbuster, Nova, etc. every time I opened my app list. I own the device, and wanted control over which apps were installed on it.

I was hesitant at first, since I didn't want to brick my Evo. Thanks to the devs and others in the community who posted guides and answered questions, it was simple and painless.

 

[gamblor01]

Same as others -- I didn't want all of the preinstalled applications (blockbuster, nova, Sprint Zone, Nascar, etc.) installed and always running.

But also really just because I could.

I still run the stock ROM because I like Sense. I know some people complain that it's slow but I rarely ever notice lag (occasionally when I type too quickly, or try to open my text message screen). I took a nandroid backup and flashed a few other ROMs but I thought they were all too ugly and unfriendly. Sense really seems to add a polished feel to the phone that other ROMs seem to simply lack.

 

[BrianJB]

Same as others -- I didn't want all of the preinstalled applications (blockbuster, nova, Sprint Zone, Nascar, etc.) installed and always running.

But also really just because I could.

I still run the stock ROM because I like Sense. I know some people complain that it's slow but I rarely ever notice lag (occasionally when I type too quickly, or try to open my text message screen). I took a nandroid backup and flashed a few other ROMs but I thought they were all too ugly and unfriendly. Sense really seems to add a polished feel to the phone that other ROMs seem to simply lack.

Yeah, I know what you mean about sense. All sense based roms just feel cleaner. But after rooting and using myns 2.2 I could really see what a "clean sense rom" is supposed to feel like.

I am now using CM7, which my phone seems to love. Because the best battery life I have ever had has come from using an AOSP rom. Which maybe its a placebo effect, but honestly I feel like my phones hardware is better suited to run an AOSP based rom. Whereas it seems other peoples phone are better suited to run sense roms.

But how I explain why I rooted to my friends who dont understand it is this;

I tell them "Think about it as buying a car. You get all of the options you want in the car, but after having it for awhile you decide that you want to replace the stereo. But the only way you can replace the stereo is when your car company comes out with a new one, but you want to put in a jvc stereo. Its your car, do you really want someone other than yourself telling you what you can and cant do with what you bought?"

Most of the time they understand what I am saying. Other times they just call me a nerd.

Either way, I love to flash new roms.

 

[uminchu]

I rooted my Hero because I liked Android but the phone was s...o ...... s...l...o...w. Rooting and modding helped. At the time, I thought the gains were dramatic, but the phone was underpowered to begin with, and I guess I was easily impressed, or maybe just naive. But what I came to appreciate much more was the new found freedom to set up the phone my way, rather than what Sprint and HTC dictated what I could or couldn't do, ie backups and nandroids, trim bloatware, better kernels, interface modifications (taskbar, rosie, etc). I felt like it was finally what it could (and should) have been out of the box.

When I upgraded to the Evo, I thought that since it came with plenty of horsepower, it wouldn't need much in the way of performance improvement, so I was rooting it more for personalizing. Wrong again lol. No matter how good the hardware, the devs can make it run better, and of course I still prefer to cut out all the bloat and customize my interface and features in ways that HTC and Sprint don't provide or allow.

Sometimes, like now, I prefer AOSP. Other times, I like Sense. I like being able to change my mind and still have it my way. To me, rooting = freedom.