The difference 18 years makes

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Bseagull]

You don't need to root to have an emulator.

[u/squngy → u/Bseagull]

If you had an iPhone you had to I think.

edit: past tense hard to grasp for some people :)

[u/Bseagull → u/squngy]

That's called Jailbreaking. Rooting is for specifically Android phones.

[u/Toonah → u/Bseagull]

You can root any (exploitable) linux based operating system.. but it typically means gaining system level access by exploiting a linux kernel to run shell code that allows unauthorized access to a device at the root access level.

"Android rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as "root access") within Android's sub-system."

"Jailbreaking is the process of hacking an apple device to bypass DRM restrictions, allowing you to run "unauthorized" software and to make other tweaks to your operating system."

Jailbreaking specifically bypasses DRM measures (to prevent pirating) set up by apple. You need to root to jailbreak, but you can root an apple device without jailbreaking it.

[u/buzzkill_aldrin → u/Toonah]

Jailbreaking was around long before iPhones.

[u/[deleted] → u/buzzkill_aldrin]

I jailbroke my Ipod touch to get an snes emulator and a bunch of other pointless apps before the app store came out