The difference between rooted and adding apps to SD

[Wyattspoppa]

I'm sure tons of folks don't understand this..What is the difference, if any, to rooting your Android phone or simply plugging it into your PC and adding apps to your phone's internal storage and moving it over to your SD card once it's on the phone?
I think you call the latter option "side-loading" if I understand this correctly. I am referring to free apps to be clear.
Thanks Gang

 

[jefboyardee]

Side-loading and rooting are two very different things. Pretty much anyone can do the first, only fearless geeks can do the second:

What is sideloading?

 

[Rxpert83]

Rooting the device is gaining absolute freedom to do what you want to it. Get rid if carrier bloat, overclock the cpu, partition your sd card so the internal space of the phone never runs out, free wifi tethering, custom roms/kernels, ect, ect, ect

This is a blessing for those that know what they are doing and a curse for those that didn't research enough before trying to mess with too many things.

I will say, every phone I have from here in out will be rooted