[spdwrks]

What's the difference from having a bootloader unlocked and being rooted?

[jspidey]

Rooting allows you to modify the existing ROM. It just gives you more access to do stuff so it can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Unlocking the bootloader will allow you flash a new recovery so you can flash custom ROMs.

Sent from my htc_evita using Android Central Forums

[spdwrks]

Thanks for the reply. Can I root without unlocking the bootloader?

[rdxhd]

Thanks for the reply. Can I root without unlocking the bootloader?

Yes

[sniffs]

Being rooted means the ability to run elevated privilege commands, like the "admin" account on your computer. It gives you write access to restricted files and folders(think modding). On Windows, it's called "administrator" and on Linux, it's called "superuser" or "su" for short.

It'd be the equivalent of Dell selling you a computer with the administrator account locked out, and your account set as a "user". We don't allow computer manufacturers to do this but for some reason it's ok for smartphone manufacturers to do this.. it boggles my mind.

Unlocked bootloader is exactly what jspidey mentioned.

[Impulses]

If you just wanna tether or backup apps with Titanium or simple things lime that then root is sufficient. If you wanna flash custom ROMs and do heavier mods you'd wanna unlock the bootloader which can now be done without notifying HTC.

[sabret00the]

Sadly at this point, the only way to unlock (and that's partially unlock) the bootloader is via htcdev

[erwaso]

Sadly at this point, the only way to unlock (and that's partially unlock) the bootloader is via htcdev

OR follow the directions here.