Android rooting

Android rooting

Gaining access to the lowest level (root level) of the Android operating system, which is prohibited on stock devices. Rooting gives the user administrator rights to alter the OS, tweak the hardware and unlock the phone from its carrier. Utilities for rooting specific models are run in the device itself or in a connected computer. One early reason for rooting was to add a glaringly missing screen capture function, which was later built in. The iPhone equivalent of rooting is "jailbreaking" (see iPhone jailbreaking).

Android Stock and Custom ROMs
After rooting, the user can replace the stock OS with a custom OS, such as Cyanogen, or install newer versions unavailable from the vendor. Unlike the iPhone's proprietary operating system (iOS), Android's open source Linux OS allows for modifications. See Android ROM, CyanogenMod and Android Debug Bridge.

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