rooting? what are the benefits?

[waqasahmed]

Originally Posted by scotty_dotty

Don't beleive there's anything out for the tab yet but if anyone knows if any of the other stuff that's already out there will work on it then I'd be greatful. I've been Reading about custom roms but not sure if that's the same as getting free stuff from the android Market.

I don't know about the Samsung tab(and I don't see much point in tablets tbh) but Honeycomb 3.0 has been released recently, which is specifically meant for tablets. I'd like to see Android hold a major market share on laptops/netbooks soon(making our devices cheaper) They already own the majority market share, according to the latest reports
http://www.pcworld.com/article/22633...sen_finds.html

From last years reports, I noticed that most graphs predicted that it would come close to Apples market share in 2015(with iOS continually declining at about 10%/year, and Android rising about 15%/year) From those graphs, you could deduce that Android would be the leader by 2016, but they've managed to grow exponentially and a lot quicker than expected

Any way, enough of my rant, custom roms are almost comparable to different GUI environments within linux. Generally, the custom ROM's out there are the same, but with custom roms it means tat you are not "locked down" with your provider so to speak. A simple thing that you may not be able to to without a custom ROM is to tether via Wifi/cable

If you want free stuff, as in legally free from the market, then there's quite a few apps out there and there's also a way that you can get questionably free items as well

Originally Posted by kimigonzales

But guys, what does rooting actually allow you to do that you can't normally do on a Desire HD? So far I've not come across any good reason to root my phone but would appreciate any reasons from those more knowledgeable than I.

It can mean that you can run certain applications that require root access like adfree, ROM Manager, Reboot and Titanium backup

Originally Posted by unadkat

I Also own a desire HD and its been rooted. It's basically De-branded the phone and I do not see the network provider LOGO anymore when I boot the phone up

Also it has taken off all the bloat ware which I couldn't uninstall certain programs as they were stored in the systems memory.

Phone is working smoother then it was with when I first bought it.

Apart from that there is no significant difference.

Ginger bread is coming out soon, so I will be changing to that OS.

When I rooted, I still had the **** that Orange put on, but when I put the custom ROM on I could. I also forced some of the apps that were stuck on the phone(ie: stubbonly wouldn't move to the memory card) via a a couple of simple commands(though was a bit of a hassle in setting up windows to recognise some linux commands)

Also, Cyanogen mod 2.3 is out for the blade; it's just a bit buggy

Originally Posted by TheCoder

Rather than 'rooting', it would actually be safer to create another user that had the required priviledge to do what you require or even just modify the priviledge of the 'normal' phone user (you have to root to modify the normal user account but then you would de-root).

You can't do this via the GUI however Im assuming you could probably make an account via the terminal, however I haven't tried this

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by waqasahmed

You can't do this via the GUI however Im assuming you could probably make an account via the terminal, however I haven't tried this

No, I imagine there wouldn't be - it would go against the devices security model to allow users an easy way to modify there own priveledges, as is also the case on ordinary linux. Users cannot normally elevate their own priveledges.

To modify user priveledges you have to be in superuser mode (on just about any linux) as that gives you the read/write permissions needed to modify the security config files.

So, to initially modify setting you do need to be 'rooted' but once settings are modified then you should be able to de-root back to user normal mode and maintain your new elevated settings. There should be no good reason to remain in the 'rooted' state once you have modified the settings necessary for whatever you are trying to achieve.

[waqasahmed]

Yup, I understand your point especially when it is only some apps that require "superuser" access ie: normally unavailable to a standard user. I may have a look in adding an admin user through the terminal(though will have to look up the commands again, as I've forgotten!)