Root To root or not to root?

[pac0naut]

Ok, so, seeing as how I'm not necessarily the least tech saavy person on here but I could possibly be the least phone tech saavy person on here, I have a few questions about rooting. Advantages, vs. disadvantages per say.

I know that rooting it will A: get rid of AT&T bloatware, B: Allow tethering and C: allow sideloading of apps. Now, my questions are - is the bloatware really that bad, and since I don't use tethering or sideloading, is it worth it to me to root my phone? What am I missing?

I know the disadvantages are possibly bricking your phone. I've never bricked a phone and I doubt I'd brick this one. I rooted a Samsung Blackjack before and it wasn't too terribly difficult. I had a Samsung Jack (blackjack 3) after that and I never bothered to mess with rooting it.

Also, the lag fix.....is that when your screen lags at times when you switch screens or is that something totally different having to do with the GPS?

Thanks...I'm starting to dig this forum!

 

[nyydynasty]

IMO, rooting is ok but not necessary if you give yourself excuses to do it. Unless you REALLY want to root your phone, its not necessary....IMO.

I have not had the lag issues so I can't chime in here but the GPS issue is a separate issue.

 

[ADPowah]

Honestly you've already outlined most of the benefits and disadvantages. Just make sure you grab Odin before you root your phone, though I've heard its a pretty hard phone to brick.

 

[dayv]

The lag fix has to do with the file system write input/ouput. The stock file system that is on the captivate is not the best one available. Most of the lag fixes out there create a buffer for the write input/output to eliminate some (or most) of the lag in the write input/output.

Does it work. Yes. However, there is not a huge difference in real world experience IMO. I have ryanza one click lag fix on my phone, my wife is still running stock. My phone's quadrant scores are four times her phone's quad scores. But my phone is not 4 times faster than hers. In real world usage my phone does open apps anywhere from 1 to 5 seconds faster than her phone, depending on the app in question.

It is kind of cool that my phone opens apps a little faster and my phone is a little snappier. But it is not enough of a difference to cause my wife to want to take on the risks associated with attempting one of the lag fixes - and I can't blame her for that either.

One down side to the lag fix buffer methods are that they use a chunk of the 2 G of space you have available to install apps to create that buffer. How much depends a little on the lag fix you choose to use, but it can be as much as half of that space.

And last of all, the rumor is Samsung is working on the write input/output along with some other fixes for up coming update to Froyo. Whether or not this will be fixed or what all will be fixed hopefully we will find out in the next month.

 

[idilium]

get att out of your phone..i really don't see what is the big deal with this just don't click on the icons.

side-loading you can do that now without rooting you know that right?

tethering wait for froyo for this.

if you like to play with your phones and risk please root
but is not necessary to root base in the things you want

 

[sremick]

You can just not put the AT&T apps icons on your home screens, and you can hide them from the main apps list by using LauncherPro instead of the stock Touchwiz launcher.

Sideloading can be done without root.

And tethering is of limited use these days, especially without "unlimited" (which were only ever up to 5GB anyway) plans.

Perhaps the biggest compelling reason to root these days is to be able to make full backups with something like Titanium Backup.