Droid 2 rooting?

[wildride89]

im new to droids and everyone speaks on rooting, custom roms, themes etc., and i just picked up a droid 2 thursday. im confident that someone will hack these new droids, but what does all these options do for your phones??? somebody school me please

 

[HarshReality]

In crude terms.. linux vs. windows. Windows.. you have an application that does most of what you want and another that is the same... in Linux you have the option to customize, edit, overwrite and replace if its what you want to do.

Similar is the phone, pay for the applications (or get free ones) that do what you want or most of what you want. But if you reallllly want to get at thew meat of things and make the OS do what you want or find ways to improve it and test it then go for root. Its the only way you can get at the system directory and make alterations that really make a difference or try other such ROMs that are pre-made.

Be advised however there are heads as well as tails to every coin. While as root you literally have total control over the OS and device you also have the destructive potential. That is the main reason most choose not to root.

 

[AmishDave]

In linux operating systems there is a user called root or super user. This user has access to everything including files critical to the operating system. When you are root you have power but you also don't have a safety net.

In terms of phones you normally gain root access to simply uninstall the operating system the vendor placed on your phone and install your own operating system either the version of android that google distributes or a version that someone has customized.

The benefits of custom installs could be anything it all depends on what features they've added but it also comes with risks in that these are generally not warrantied by any company.

The benefit of installing the google distro is a swifter update. In the case of your droid 2, for example, motorola and verizon teamed up to create the version of android 2.2 that is running on your phone. Some day google will release android 2.3. When that day comes both verizon and motorola will have to work together to create a version of 2.3 that they deem acceptable for your phone. This process has been taking months for most phones to date. The other advantage is that most of these operating systems developed by motorola, samsung, or htc all have some bloatware (ie the blockbuster app that you've probably seen). Sometimes these apps can't even be uninstalled from your phone so if you are able to install google's version you can free up some space because it doesn't come with that crap.

 

[wildride89]

In linux operating systems there is a user called root or super user. This user has access to everything including files critical to the operating system. When you are root you have power but you also don't have a safety net.

In terms of phones you normally gain root access to simply uninstall the operating system the vendor placed on your phone and install your own operating system either the version of android that google distributes or a version that someone has customized.

The benefits of custom installs could be anything it all depends on what features they've added but it also comes with risks in that these are generally not warrantied by any company.

The benefit of installing the google distro is a swifter update. In the case of your droid 2, for example, motorola and verizon teamed up to create the version of android 2.2 that is running on your phone. Some day google will release android 2.3. When that day comes both verizon and motorola will have to work together to create a version of 2.3 that they deem acceptable for your phone. This process has been taking months for most phones to date. The other advantage is that most of these operating systems developed by motorola, samsung, or htc all have some bloatware (ie the blockbuster app that you've probably seen). Sometimes these apps can't even be uninstalled from your phone so if you are able to install google's version you can free up some space because it doesn't come with that crap.

Basically sounds like taking the pill that will get me out of the motorola matrix haha

 

[sweetee]

grrrrr I really want to get rid of Blockbuster on my Droid 2...was a pain in the butt.

 

[Kamokazi]

Think of your phone as being like a Windows PC, but you don't have access to the Windows directory, half the Control Panel, or the registry, or any of the directories in Program Files that came with the system.

Now, 'rooting' would allow you access to all those areas, so you have much greater flexibility with what you can do with your phone.

 

[wildride89]

So who is going to crack it first? Glory lasts a long time