How to Root Almost Any Android Device in a Few Easy Steps

K. I've been reading this thread from the beginning, and haven't commented, though it is clear there is a lot of misinformation, and their are a lot of misconceptions. So I'll try to clear some of those up. Forgive me if I speak of that which you all already know, and I'll try to live up to the quality of discourse we all expect on CR4,

First, rooting a device gives the user more control over the device. We all see that. But rooting a device CAN brick it, unless the user doing the rooting is sufficiently careful. And if the user has NO experience with the root login on a system, the user probably is better off not having it. As a former UNIX and Windows NT administrator for the US Department of Defense, and for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as a trainer of UNIX admins, I know the damage, first-hand, that an ill-advised command issued from ROOT can cause. Bad JuJu, for certain.

But, rooting a device offers all of the advantages of which you all have spoken, and best of all, allows one to take the BLOAT-WARE he or she will never use off the device, thus saving battery life, and improving system performance.

It also allows the user to render things like the camera inoperable except at the ROOT user's discretion. Since the ROOT user is currently the device provider, and rooting the device makes the owner the ROOT user, the advantage of that is probably obvious, especially in societies where the government, or other entities, think nothing of spying on one's activities.

More prosaic, perhaps, is that apps the provider wants to have running 24/7, maybe to be able to push advertisements to the user, or perhaps to be able to add new apps, or "updated" (often a retrograde enhancement, in my opinion. And yes, that IS an oxy-moron, deliberately) apps and OS'es, which you may dearly desire to never have gotten.

If you root the phone, and learn what you now control, you can turn those things off, and only upgrade them at your desire, if ever.

As far as Jail-Breaking, versus ROOTing, no, they are NOT the same thing.

As we've seen, a ROOTed phone is now in control of it's owner. But if it was a promo on signature of a contract with a provider, the phone is still locked to that provider, usually. This is because the lock is provided by the BOOT ROM, which is a different part of the system memory than that occupied by apps and the Operating System (OS).

That lock is what Jail-Breaking does away with, and simply rooting a phone will almost never accomplish the Jail-Break function. This is true for both Apple and Android phones, for both rooting and jail-breaking.

As far as the provider frowning on it, of course they do. It offers the user a degree of freedom from their economic control which they don't like to see.

And truthfully, if the device was delivered to the user at a discount, pursuant to a reduced price contract, there is a certain degree of "contract honoring" involved in the user NOT either rooting, or jail-breaking, the phone.

If on the other hand, you purchase the phone at full price, not part of a contract, or the contract period has been met (and you didn't take advantage of the "new every two" clause to get a newer device), I see nothing unethical in jail-breaking, or rooting, a device.

The provider will frown, but cannot currently do anything about it, nor do they have legal rights to do anything about it. If they did, after all, why would they spend untold legal moneys trying to get laws passed to make those actions illegal?

They could, I suppose, put your device on a "no fly" list, based on it's unique hardware address, but sooner or later that would backfire as they would lose customers, both because of banned devices, and because of support from those who, while they may not have rooted their device, would nonetheless boycott the provider who pursued such a course.

Simply put, freedom on your part as a user of a device means less opportunity to force you to at least read advertisements, and less advertising revenue. And THAT is what they frown on. But I doubt they'd willingly give up a customer entirely (who, after all, IS paying the monthly service fee) for the small additional revenue that customer would provide if he or she hadn't got smarter and more technically savvy.

Would I root, or jail-break a device? In a heart-beat. I haven't yet only because I currently LIKE my provider, and my current PHONE (not rooted) doesn't have apps I don't want, or bad habits that powering it off won't stop. And my data pad came rooted from the factory.