Is rooting wise?

[PcTek9]

A friend advised me to root my samsung tablet, saying it was fantastic, Of course I could install another os without rooting, but at any rate I'd be very happy if I did. I didn't have any experience in this arena, and people advised me to use a wide variety of software on both windows and linux machines to make the magic happen.
Finally I was sick and tired of my very very slow samsung tablet. I installed an os called LineageOS an open source version of android for a wide variety of devices.
It was like I had bought a new tablet 10 times faster. Not only this, the battery started lasting many more hours of heavy use, and everything worked flawlessly.
It made me wonder why manufacturers make such powerful devices, then bog them down with so much "unremovable" crapware and spy tech, that the powerful device becomes the equivalent of an iphone 2 in usability.
I will say that I can still access and download apps from the google play store on my tablet, but now everything is waves better than it was before. I'm talking huge kalibunga waves better! This tablet now totally rocks.
Yes there was a bit of a learning curve, but I have been using it a while now, and it's amazing the world of difference I see in the user interface and device operations. While I can't advise you to do it on your device, I can say I haven't regretted it for a second.

 

[SAFCasper]

I root and flash a custom ROM on every phone I get. LineageOS is great. Was originally called CyanogenMod until the owner tried to commercialise it so the community just forked the code, since it was open-source, and continued development under the new name.

Can't say I've noticed such huge performance gains as you are experiencing but it definitely feels snappier and you don't have all the pre-installed junk OEM's put on. I also hate Samsung's UI so it replaces that. Battery life boost is always welcome too.

Most of the builds are essentially dev/beta but I haven't experienced any major bugs myself. A few little things like the camera app would spontaneously crash on one phone, couldn't get the flashlight to work on another. All fixed eventually with later updates.

If you want something a bit more stable look at AOSP Extended. It's basically vanilla Android but stripped back a little and a few enhancements.

EDIT
I will just add I do this to my own phone and nobody else. It's more because it interests me and I like to tinker. It's not something I would recommend for people who want a phone/tablet that "just works"

 

[Sky-Knight]

I've rooted my own stuff in the past, but generally speaking no, I don't think it's a good idea.

No support from the hardware vendor and the software vendor means you leave yourself in a weak position. All that said, most of the aforementioned groups don't patch phones properly anyway so the ideals ring rather hollow.

 

[GTP]

That first line:
"A friend advised me to root my samsung tablet,"
almost made me crack a rib from laughing........

 

[seedubya]

That first line:
"A friend advised me to root my samsung tablet,"
almost made me crack a rib from laughing........

Hey sheila, fancy rootin' me phone - well it's more of a phablet, really.

 

[PcTek9]

nahhh mine is just a samsung tablet with wifi no 3g so it's not a phablet. Frankly it's been awesome for me, and i can see on my pihole that it doesn't phone home or have any spyware, so im really excited about that.

 

[Sky-Knight]

rooting a pihole...

The force is strong with this one...

 

[Moltuae]

Respect to all the Australians here for showing commendable restraint.

I didn't know 'Rooting' had another meaning in Oz. I will never see that word the same again now

Reminds me of the British use of the word 'Shag'. When I was in my early teens, and long before I learned that in America 'Shag' is a form of dancing, someone on an American family TV show I was watching said that they'd been "out shagging all night" -- I couldn't believe my ears! I also recall that, around the same time, there was Married With Children and Al's frequent references to his in-laws, the Wankers!

And more recently there's 'trump' which, in British-English means the same as fart. I hadn't heard of Donald Trump before he became president so when I first saw the 'Trump for President' banners I thought it was some kind of instruction or show of allegiance, a bit like the 'Honk if You're Horny' bumper stickers .... Which reminds me of another British-American difference, the word 'Randy' -- The difference being that NOBODY in Britain would ever call their children Randy!

 

[Markverhyden]

Hey sheila, fancy rootin' me phone - well it's more of a phablet, really.

"where's the knob?"