The backflip has been a bit of a red-headed stepchild in the Android world. It is running 1.5, but the device was released several months after 2.1 became available. The Android OS has to be customized for individual devices, and this is done by the device manufacturer. Google releases a "vanilla" version of the OS, and it typically will work on their current core model, which used to be the G1, and is now the Nexus One. A few other phones have also ran the vanilla version, and tend to get quick upgrades (the Droid, and myTouch for example). Most other phones take longer because not only does the company that makes the phone have to update for the hardware, they also have to upgrade their specific interface (Samsung: TouchWiz, HTC: Sense UI, Motorola: Blur).
This seems to take a long time, or sometimes never happens. So in the meantime impatient users and developers work together to provide unofficial ports. Additionally these ports often provide additional features, or remove some of the junk the carriers put on the phones (like AT&T radio, TV, etc) However, loading something like this requires picking a few locks, like rooting the default install, or unlocking the bootloader.
The bad news is that no one has figured out and publicly released a root method for the Backflip. There is a blogger who says he has rooted a device, but it was done with Motorola developer tools that haven't been leaked, and he is afraid leaking them would have negative consequences for him (presumably his job). I respect his reasons for not releasing things, but it is very disappointing that hacking the Backflip is currently at 0.
I'm now under the impression that there are only about 7 of us who ever bought the device, and we may never see it get rooted. This is particuarly disappointing because of all of the great software coming out that can only run on Android 2.0 or above, the fact that Motorola/AT&T locked down the device from installing apps outside of the market (unlike EVERY OTHER ANDROID DEVICE) and the AT&T bloatware.
The good news is that Motorola has promised a 2.1 upgrade for Q3 2010, which hopefully will get bumped up to 2.2. Motorola has a good track record with updates on the droid, so I have more confidence in this happening than I have in Samsung at this point.
I hope this answers the first part of your question, and picks off some follow up questions before you have to ask them.
As for the rest of your post, I haven't messed with ringtones much, but I think they just have to be in the appropriate folder on the root of the SD card. You may want to throw another micro sd card in the phone and format it to see if the device puts a ringtone folder somewhere, or just back up the data off your current card to your computer and then format the card in the backflip. It would probably be a good idea to get some of the blackberry specific stuff off anyway.
You may strike out on the GPS question. Since Android has has built in Navigation starting with 1.6 (which came out close to a year ago) there hasn't been much reason for developers to write such applications. It should become available for the phone whenever Motorola releases the 2.1 upgrade.
Enjoy the phone. It is actually pretty neat hardware, it is just frustrating that from a software point of view it is pretty locked down. Google Backflip root to find the blog about the root, and there is a way to install non-market apps, but you have to use the developer tools (not the motorola tools, the freely available android tools) to do so, and it can only be done through the computer. The video camera is pretty terrible, but the still camera is one of the best I have seen on a phone.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram