Root Terminology & Number Soup - Clarifications before I jump?

[Silentknyght]

...jump, as in jump into the deep end, not off a building.

Anyhow, I humble myself to admit to needing a bit of hand-holding. I'm tech savvy, but I'm having difficulty sorting out the terminology and the necessary procedures to jump into the deep end of customizing my Droid. I'll try to provide as much information, as well as my questions, in as clear and precise a manner as to avoid the very issues I'm having:

Phone purchased Feb. 22, 2010.
Firmware 2.0.1, as installed by manufacturer.

My Steps did so far:

1. Purchased a couple cheap apps from the market.
2. I used this tutorial ( Video Guides - Rooting, Nandroid backup, Unrooting, Cust ROM ) to enable root access on my phone.
3. Used the tutorial (see link above) to install SirPsychoS recovery-0.99.1b. Made a backup. Updated recovery tool to 0.99.2b

Ultimately, I want to my phone to look like the screenshots presented in the Dark Special Edition "theme" ( DarkDroid-SpecialEdition 10k/24k *New Poll* ).

So, my questions:

1. What is the difference between a theme and a ROM? Is "ROM" just another word for firmware? Or is there a subtle yet important difference?
2. The Dark Special Edition link seems to suggest that this theme requires a 2.0.1 ROM. I already have 2.0.1 installed by the manufacturer. Is that the same? Will what I have work? Or do I need to install a custom ROM like Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x ( [ROM.tgz] Smoked Glass v5.0.1 **BIG Update 02/27** )?
3. What is the difference between Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x (see above), which appears to be 2.0.1 firmware with some customization lifted from 2.1, and the "true" 2.1 ( The Simplest Guide to 2.1 (and Busybox and Nandroid) )?
4. If the answer to question #3 is "I need a custom 2.0.1 ROM" and if Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x will suffice, will the install of the Dark Special Edition theme overwrite the look & feel of Adamz' ROM?
5. Suppose I install a custom 2.0.1 firmware or custom 2.1 firmware and the official 2.1 firmware is pushed out to the phones, assuming that the custom firmwares have the Over-the-Air (OTA) updates disabled. Would obtaining that official 2.1 firmware be as simple as using the nandroid backup I created back in my Step #3 and checking for updates in the phone's settings? Would there be any benefit in installing the official 2.1 firmware?

If I'm totally off-base, feel free to set me straight. Of course, many thanks in advance.
~SK

 

[Fabolous]

So, my questions:

1. What is the difference between a theme and a ROM? Is "ROM" just another word for firmware? Or is there a subtle yet important difference?
   
   A theme can be applied over your current firmware using the app Metamorph or using an update.zip file. A ROM is a whole other firmware
   
2. The Dark Special Edition link seems to suggest that this theme requires a 2.0.1 ROM. I already have 2.0.1 installed by the manufacturer. Is that the same? Will what I have work? Or do I need to install a custom ROM like Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x ( [ROM.tgz] Smoked Glass v5.0.1 **BIG Update 02/27** )?
   
   This is a THEME. It does not require flashing another ROM. However, the stock 2.0.1 is odexed, so you will have to remove services.jar from the update.zip file, or else you will run into issues. Otherwise, you could install a 2.0.1 based custom ROM, which will most likely be deodexed, and will not require any modifications to the update.zip file. Either way, make a nandroid backup before you proceed.
   
3. What is the difference between Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x (see above), which appears to be 2.0.1 firmware with some customization lifted from 2.1, and the "true" 2.1 ( The Simplest Guide to 2.1 (and Busybox and Nandroid) )?
   
   True 2.1 has all the optimizations of the new Android OS. In fact, with the new ERE25 and ESE53 (Droid 2.1 release candidates) leaks, a 2.0.1 based ROM is almost pointless.
   
4. If the answer to question #3 is "I need a custom 2.0.1 ROM" and if Adamz's Smoked Glass 5.0.x will suffice, will the install of the Dark Special Edition theme overwrite the look & feel of Adamz' ROM?
   
   You don't need a custom ROM, but the theme will overwrite any theme you have now, no matter the ROM
   
5. Suppose I install a custom 2.0.1 firmware or custom 2.1 firmware and the official 2.1 firmware is pushed out to the phones, assuming that the custom firmwares have the Over-the-Air (OTA) updates disabled. Would obtaining that official 2.1 firmware be as simple as using the nandroid backup I created back in my Step #3 and checking for updates in the phone's settings? Would there be any benefit in installing the official 2.1 firmware?
   
   Yes, you can always nandroid back to your stock 2.0.1 and apply the OTA update. However, you will be let down. It will not be as good as any of the cooked ESE53 ROMs out right now. You'll lose a lot of features, such as overclocking and wifi tethering, and gain nothing.
   

If I'm totally off-base, feel free to set me straight. Of course, many thanks in advance.
~SK

Answers are in bold. Also, this belongs in the root section, and I am moving it there.

 

[Silentknyght]

Answers are in bold. Also, this belongs in the root section, and I am moving it there.

Excellent. Thanks for moving this to the appropriate section.

Follow-up questions, of course

1. I've seen "ESE52" and "ERE25" discussed, without any comparison. Is there somewhere I should look or is there information I could read (hopefully consolidated somewhere) in order to get myself up to speed faster?
2. What does it mean for a firmware to be odexed, versus deodexed?

 

[Fabolous]

ESE53 and ERE25 are just two leaked builds of 2.1 for Droid. They're both stable, but ESE53 does contain live wallpapers, and is supposedly a later build.

As for deodexing, that just removes the odex files that are associated with .apk files, and incorporates them back into the .apk.

Just makes modifying stuff easier, and supposedly gains a bit of performance.