Rooting is for the naive

[darreno1]

As with any kind of modification, there are risks, it comes with the territory but a bad or malicious rom will only get so far. Word spreads quickly around this community and the bad stuff will get 'rooted' out.

 

[bwhite82]

...Not to take anything away from these fine coders who are releasing these custom roms. But I have to ask you, how well do you really know them? Do you know them well enough, that you don't mind if your keys are logged and emailed to a remote server? How about letting them borrow your credit card? Or letting them know your whereabouts via GPS at any given time? For my part, I say nay. I would need to know someone lifelong to be that trusting...

..Just take your time and research the developer before you open up your 600 dollar device to somebody who hacked something up in his basement...

...Only a few years later, I installed my first Linux distro, Suse. Since then, I have not looked back at Windows, installing various distros from year to year, eventually settling back to OpenSuse (my current distro)...

Maybe you don't realize, but Linux is open source software. It's nothing more than the result of hundreds of thousands of people that "hacked something up" in their basement.

I am certain you haven't opened up your OpenSuse and read line for line what it does...

As a Debian Sid user I agree with your point, but you are arguing it poorly in more than just the title here...

You can't compare a full distro to some crackpots hacked up rom. Most mainstream distros have many levels of quality control--Debian being the strictest. Oh and uh.....wow, never realized Linux was Open sauce.....kidding.

 

[NoKz]

Sounds like you might be the same guy in this picture:

 

[billygalbreath]

You can't compare a full distro to some crackpots hacked up rom. Most mainstream distros have many levels of quality control--Debian being the strictest. Oh and uh.....wow, never realized Linux was Open sauce.....kidding.

Sure I can. Break down your full distro. It's nothing more than a bunch of programs. There's no way every one can be checked line fore line. Anyone at any time can slip malicious code in there is they so desired. It would get caught after the fact..

 

[adrynalyne]

...Not to take anything away from these fine coders who are releasing these custom roms. But I have to ask you, how well do you really know them? Do you know them well enough, that you don't mind if your keys are logged and emailed to a remote server? How about letting them borrow your credit card? Or letting them know your whereabouts via GPS at any given time? For my part, I say nay. I would need to know someone lifelong to be that trusting...

...Only a few years later, I installed my first Linux distro, Suse. Since then, I have not looked back at Windows, installing various distros from year to year, eventually settling back to OpenSuse (my current distro)...

Maybe you don't realize, but Linux is open source software. It's nothing more than the result of hundreds of thousands of people that "hacked something up" in their basement.

I am certain you haven't opened up your OpenSuse and read line for line what it does...

As a Debian Sid user I agree with your point, but you are arguing it poorly in more than just the title here...

You can't compare a full distro to some crackpots hacked up rom. Most mainstream distros have many levels of quality control--Debian being the strictest. Oh and uh.....wow, never realized Linux was Open sauce.....kidding.

Um, hacked up is exactly what Linux is. its also what Android is. Even without the help of rom cooks.

 

[bwhite82]

Last post for me. Look, you can either take my advice or not. Its entirely up to you. I am simply trying to educate some folks who may not be in the know.

Additionally,

This is me FORMALLY apologizing for my sensational title. Mods, feel free to edit please.

Roger out.

 

[mikes]

Firstly, some background on me...

Not looking for cred, honestly.

No, of course not. :icon_rolleyes:

 

[Mojo]

I believe the OP has a very good point in his post. There is always risk when downloading any type of software from unknown/intrusted places or persons. However, I have been apart of various forums for quite sometime now. And many of the developers or people that are making ROMs have been around the forum world for quite a long time as well. Look at some of the people from xda they have been doing this stuff for years.. it is a hobby to them. They enjoy hacking stuff and sharing it with the world because they can. So overall I think we are safe. But should be cautious.

 

[butch350]

Yall don't eat everybodies cooking do ya? Huh, do ya?

You never know what ingredient is in the food someone else has prepared for you.

Be " finicky ", don't always partake of everything someone gives ya.

My point? I found this to be true when installing strange software.

 

[loop4zil]

I think it is a good idea for people to consider all the potential risks prior to modifying your droid. Honestly, I never really considered the risk of malicious code...I still would have rooted and flashed cause I am a compulsive tinker-er...but I might have done a wee bit more research.

 

[mrdroid]

I didn't bother reading this whole thread but I just have to comment on the original post.... if you've made a decision to not root for one reason or another fine. That's your free choice to make. However; even though Verizon has embraced this OpenSource platform and encourages open development the Droid device and it's brothers have much to be desired. In order to unlock it's full potential rooting is necessary. To utilize an Android device as a smartphone alone obviously this doesn't apply.

That being said... stating that you're putting yourself at risk by modding your Droid is quite an over reaction. If you were to have your identity stolen by some method implemented in code on your Droid it would be incredibly easy to trace it back to the root source. A ROM developer or other dev that chose to do this would basically be honey potting themselves. It would be like a worm developer throwing their malicious creation out into the wild and leaving their home address attached to it.

Secondly, you do way more risky things with your identity every day. Using a 3rd party ATM is probably a couple thousand times more risky. Using a credit card at a restaurant. Signing up for a grocery store perk/savings card. Applying for a job online.

I could literally give thousands of examples of REAL everyday risk. Yes there is risk involved in using a Droid with confidential information. But that's not because you've rooted. And it's not different than using confidential information on a non-rooted Droid or a Blackberry or an iPhone.

 

[revjim44]

That was entertaining. A lot of good points all around. I particularly liked all the old folks tripping down memory lane. The cool thing is that I'm typing this from my Droid on a stupid fast wireless network. How far we've come from 300 baud connections to the university's vax so we could chat on bitnet. Technology rocks. Yeah, I'm old. Yeah, I know intimately what a trash-80 is. Yeah, I'm rooted, running some 13 year old kid's OS to push my Droid to 1.2 ghz. It may blow up. Someone might read my text messages or log my gps data. Somebody might even clone my debit card... but damn, my phone is fast. I'll deal with the other stuff if it happens. For now, I'm happy.

- Jim

 

[mrdroid]

^That post was awesome.

 

[OpalCat]

Firstly, some background on me. I am 28 years young and started out on PCs just as they began booming in the early nineties. I became a full-out geek pretty much from the get-go. I had a 486 PC with Windows 3.11/DOS with maybe a 100mb HD, can't remember. Shortly thereafter, the AOL boom hit. Anyone remember "punters" and "server rooms". No? Not surprising. I was a geek even on AOL.

I love this part because it sounds like the OP thinks that other people will think 28 is "old" somehow. Hell I first got online via local BBS systems from my Commodore 64 in the mid-80s, and I consider myself to be young. 28 is like... very young.

Regarding the whole issue at hand... I think a lot of people just don't see it as that risky a behavior. I don't carry credit card info in my phone and I don't do a bunch of top-secret activity on it... the worst that could happen for me, personally, is that my phone gets damaged. I'm willing to take that risk. I don't throw ROMs all over my phone--I am using DroidMod 1.0 because it seems very well documented, supported, and "verified" for lack of a better term. But even those who constantly update to the latest and greatest aren't really taking all THAT big of a risk most of the time, I think. Mrdroid makes an excellent point about how easy it would be to track back malicious code to the programmer.

 

[revjim44]

I love this part because it sounds like the OP thinks that other people will think 28 is "old" somehow. Hell I first got online via local BBS systems from my Commodore 64 in the mid-80s, and I consider myself to be young. 28 is like... very young.

That's what's great about this forum. We have 13 year old coders who think that 28 is old, the 8088 processor / punch cards/ I-took-engineering-drawing-on-a-drafting-board-with-a-freakin'-pencil crowd, and everyone in between. We have system administrators, noobs, geeks, business owners and moms/dads. I like that this community can have a serious discussion without it degrading into some crazy flame war. Thanks to everyone for their opinions. I don't necessarily agree with all of them, but they are very entertaining to read. Cudos all around.

-Jim