root & custom ROM beginner questions

[Guest PatrickW.]

Hey everybody,

I'm very new to the whole modding scene around Android, but being interested and primarily confused about all the information here, I wanted to ask some beginner questions.

I own an HTC Desire since it came out here in Germany in early April, and always tried to avoid installing a custom ROM or rooting the phone. The main reason for that is that I am scared of bricking the phone (or at least getting it into some state where I can't recover the original state); plus I quite like the overall experience.

Lately I found myself in need of some customizations. For example I am having more and more problems with the Desire's limited phone storage, especially with Apps like Adobe AIR or Firefox (Fennec) that take up a lot space. And apparently Froyo's native Apps2SD isn't capable of clearing off enough room for those apps. However I read somewhere that the reason for this might be Android's internal cache - which can't be cleared without root privileges.

Also on the topic of phone storage, I would like to get rid of some HTC apps which I never used and probably never will (thinking about Footprints, the Stock app and Peep). Is it possible to remove these locked applications from the system with root?

I have heard of different methods to root by now. I am particularly interested in MoDaCo's VISIONary, especially because of its easy temp root feature and the unroot feature in r12+. Having the possibility to just temporarily adjust such things or at least having the possibility to undo a permanent root would be very cool and follow my plan of keeping the phone in a recoverable state. However, is VISIONary actually working with a normal Desire, and is it safe to use?

What other possibilities are there to - securily - root the phone? I have seen the huge pinned topic, but alone the opening statement “Read this whole topic” in that 127 pages monster is scary. Another method I have seen is unrevoked, but from its description it seems that the primary use for that app is to replace the recovery image.

But is it actually possible to just gain root rights without flashing any ROM (well it seems to be possible given that VISIONary is able to do it)?

Regarding custom ROMs, what would I gain by using them? Except for the core system being cleaner? When using a custom ROM, I would always have to check for updates myself, right? So whenever something new comes out, I would have to reflash with a new version. Also is the recovery partition usually flashed too, or is it possible to just flash the system, but keep the rest in the original state so one could completely revert anything? If not, are there tools to backup the current state externally and keep the option to revert to it later?

I know that most (if not all) of these questions are probably answered somewhere else. However, given the size of MoDaCo, it is hard to really find what I'm looking for. If there are (up2date) topics that cover my questions (either completely or partly), please tell me, and I'll happily read there.

Thank you

Patrick