I Won’t Root for the Home Team
You’ll see a lot of Android blogs touting the wonders of rooting your phone, and as a programmer and open-source proponent, I know that reducing bloatware can make a big impact on the speed of your device and your ability to customize it. However, I’m not going to root my Droid. Let me explain why.
First, what is rooting? Rooting (as far as I understand it without having done it) is basically reducing the Android operating system to its “base”, removing all of the software and restrictions imposed by the manufacturer and/or service provider, and giving you full access to every aspect of your phone – below the surface of the soil, so to speak. You can get around a lot of the standard Android security measures by rooting. It also allows you to install a “custom ROM” and to install some applications that won’t work on “unrooted” devices.
There are a lot of good reasons to root your phone. It’s also easy now with several “one-click” root methods available, and some major blogs like Lifehacker recommend it. However, there are a lot of reasons not to root your phone as well – you open yourself up to malicious apps (since you disable some security measures) and you can accidentally “brick” (or ruin) your phone as well. Android and Me did a good job of outlining a lot of the dangers of rooting. (Also, it can void your warranty.)
However, despite the dangers, I’m an experimenter, and I would normally be the type to dive in and root my phone. So why haven’t I?
We have gotten great feedback from you all through this blog and through twitter, thanking us for showing you how to use your phones, and not going off-course and posting leaked rumors about new phones, showing you how to be a “hacker”, or just re-hashing the news broken by other blogs that have actual inside contacts at device manufacturers and service providers. I let them do the news-breaking (and phone-breaking) and you can find headlines and links to top Android news stories from other blogs on our Twitter page. Here in the WomenWithDroids blog, we want to keep the focus on app reviews and how-to articles that help you make the most of the phone you already own. (There are plenty of other blogs where you can drool over the next hot device coming out!)
Even though there is a high concentration of tech-types online, and we could show you some “really cool stuff” if we did root our phones, that’s not our goal here. Interestingly, by reading lots of other Android blogs as a non-rooted phone user, I totally understand why constantly seeing posts about apps that require rooting can be really frustrating for those that haven’t rooted (or make you feel like you have to root your phone for it to be awesome, which you don’t).
So, that’s the long story on why I won’t root my phone, and you can be assured that the WomenWithDroids blog will keep the focus on the “typical” Android phone user (and “typical” doesn’t mean “boring” here!).
So, I’m avoiding the urge to root for you, the “home team” – and to be honest, I don’t feel like I’m missing out. My original Droid does just about everything I want it to do, and more! I actually enjoy “keeping in simple” and not worrying about all of the potential dangers I would be exposing my phone to by rooting.
We’ve really appreciated your positive feedback about what we’re doing here; whether you comment on the blog, tweet or retweet us on twitter, or tell your friends to check us out, the buzz really keeps us going, and growing! We’ve got some plans in the works to bring even more fun & unique content to WomenWithDroids in the future, so stay tuned!
I rooted, but only because I like to tinker. Which is why I love Android versus iPhone in the first place. But for the average person, I really see no major advantage to doing it.
Yeah that’s how I felt about it – it would be fun, but isn’t really necessary.
Great post Renee-
I’ve been sucked in by all the noise on rooting also but am right there with you on why not to. While I can appreciate the more tech-savy user’s interest in tinkering, playing with the hardware at this point is just too risky and time-consuming for me. I’m still busy learning short cuts, testing out apps, etc.
There are lots of online resources for hard-core techies, but not alot for your more average user. Women With Droids offers that great middle ground…
Thanks, and I’m glad you agree about the “middle ground”!
I love this site and it has so much useful information. I too have chosen not to root my phone, but the main and only reason I would is to be a to screen shot my phone. So I have a question. How are you able to show screen shots of your phone without rooting. I would love to have that option as well. TYIA
I believe there might be some screenshot apps available now, but the way I take them uses the Android SDK. It requires some setup, but works well:
http://www.womenwithdroids.com/2010/02/how-to-take-screenshots/
Thanks for your comment!
[…] have a bit of bloatware. Some of the apps it comes with can be uninstalled, but many can’t. I don’t root my phones, so I don’t have a problem with the locked bootloader, but I do wish I could uninstall apps […]