I have been toying with the idea of rooting for a while. My only problem is I like my TB the way it is I just want to get rid of some of the bloat and add wireless hotspot. My question if I root will I have to flash a rom to have sense? Or if I root now will I have my phone with sense or will it go to vanilla? I know I will have to backup etc. Any help would be appreciated.
there are some stickies on the home page but I will give you my view.
If you root you won't lose your Verizon installed OS...you will just be able to do more things (some good and some dangerous if you don't know what you are doing).
There are many ROMS out there that are SENSE base. Here is a brief list (these are the ones I have used, there are more)
BAMF Forever 1.06, 1.07, 1.08, 1.09, 1.10, 1.11
BAMF SoaB (Son of a Bliss) 1.04
BAMF Cubed (latest)
Gingeristis 3D 1.1, 1.2
Infected Eternity ROM (sense 3.5 w/beats audio)
IKream (my current ROM I am using).
Keep in mind, different ROMS get rid of a lot of bloatware, all bloatware or a little bloatware. Look for something in the descrition that says "De-bloated".
I would download MyBackUp Pro to backup everything. A lot of people use Titanium Backup also which is good, but I prefer MyBackUp.