Convince me to root

This started from another thread but I guess I was about to hijack it so I just created a new thread here.


I have found 100 different articles on rooting but they all say essentially the same thing "here are 5 reasons to root" but none of those 5 reasons are compelling. If so many people are all hyped up about it there has to be more than tethering and removing bloatware, right? Also I've searched for root only apps thinking that there might be some magical app I can't live without but the only things I ever really find are Titanium backup and Rom Manager.

I feel like I understand everything I've read about rooting but I'm not actually "getting it". Make sense? Kind of like someone told a joke and everyone is laughing and I'm sitting there thinking "I guess I should smile but I don't know why".

I appreciate your answer, JPC, it's the same kind of thing I find all over the place but doesn't really help me make a decision. What I want are specifics. I guess what I'm asking is what is the "full potential" of the phone or why would I need access to the "deepest depths" of my phone.

I almost think your sentence "It's more of a geeky thing sometimes" maybe sums it up the best. Seems more like people just want to be part of the root in crowd. Much like the Linux crowd who have to install it on their home machines. I get it Linux users, you are vastly superior to us mere Windows users. Except I don't get that superiority vibe from rooters so there has got to be a more legit reason to root.

Even the couple of friends I have who have rooted their phones don't ever say "I wanted to be able to do 'x' which you can't do without root". But then I'm a computer geek by trade and almost all of my friends are too so they mostly do this stuff just because they like futzing around with that kind of stuff. Which is a fine reason it's just a reason for me to do it.

Though saying you like custom ROMs is more specific so I appreciate that. I haven't actually looked into ROMs much yet (just some cursory reading about Cyogenmod) because that seems a little cart-before-the-horse.

I've searched the market for root apps before but there isn't anything that jumps out at me.

Thanks, JPC! If you have any other input I'd be happy to hear it.

Thanks. The bullet points are great. The overclocking sounds cool. I'd assumed that this would aversely effect the battery so I never even looked into it. Most of things I'm interested in are more form than function so you can't really justify it, however, the radio thing is interesting and something I might research as well.

You and JPC are super helpful. Thanks to both of you.

Ironic Timing:

http://lifehacker.com/5806249/the-10-best-android-apps-that-make-rooting-your-phone-worth-the-hassle

That ad-blocker is one I haven't heard of. That'll be one of my first apps when I get around to rooting.



Lockscreen replacements never seem to be all that great (to me anyway). As far as functionality, look at that link.

I do see that jrocker23 is making mods now so maybe that's a reason.