this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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"Rooting" is literally the act of taking control of the "root" user profile. This is the same as SYSTEM on Windows and even "root" on a Macintosh. As the names imply; the "root" user is the first user. When you are "root"; there are no rules about what you can run. You are essentially as powerful as the operating system itself.
But that omnipotent power does come with a great responsibility. With root access you can literally order the Operating System or even the hardware to kill itself; deleting important files or altering core code is not going to be met with resistance. Sometimes it will even comply with your commands without even checking if they are valid.
Without appropriate understanding of what you are commanding your device to do...Yes, rooting can be dangerous. However; if you do know exactly what you are doing, or are following instructions that are well known to work exactly how you intended them to that were written by someone who does know what they are doing...then Yes, Rooting can be Safe
The trouble with Rooting is trust. You are placing trust in a number of apps and software components to not abuse that access.
If you limit apps that are granted root access and make sure only safe apps are granted access; then all should be well. But don't blame anyone if you damage your device.
This is why Rooting your device should ideally only be done after any manufacturer, OEM and carrier warranty has expired. It has benefits; but so too do the guardrails we program into modern operating systems. Rooting your device can be akin to bowling without the bumpers preventing your ball from falling into the gutter.
It would be good to point out that a user of a rooted phone isn't as likely to go running random terminal commands as root as you would in Linux. Most of the time users of rooted phones are running apps that use root privileges without running commands themselves. Also if you don't know what your doing then don't run random terminal commands.