I can only speak for Android, but... First of all, there are some apps that require root access. Some of them are mundane, but some like Titanium Backup are practically essential. Also, a lot of Android devices come pre-loaded with a lot of uninstallable bloatware. With root access you can remove that. One of the main reasons I root my devices is, well, they're MY devices. I should have full access to them. It doesn't hurt that the modded ROMs I use are already rooted. I'm not sure how many colours Android'd Terminal Emulator supports, but there are developer-specific terminal apps. I don't know that there's a native emacs for Android, though, but I also have no idea why you'd want to run emacs on a tablet or phone or anything without a physical keyboard. There's a reason people say EMACS stands for "Escape Meta Alt Ctrl Shift". On Fri, 15 Feb 2013, Olwe Bottorff wrote: > So then, what does getting superuser access get me? I assume it's like > having sudo -s or "root" privileges on the tablet. But then what can I do > with such power? I'd like a terminal with 256 colors and Emacs 24. on board > native. Can I then install these? > > O > GM,MN > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > From: Wayne Johnson <wdtj at yahoo.com> > To: Olwe Bottorff <galanolwe at yahoo.com>; TCLUG Mailing List > <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>; TCLUG Mailing List > <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> > Sent: Friday, February 15, 2013 8:33 AM > Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Linux on a tablet? > > At least with Android, you already have Linux on your tablet. Android > uses Linux as it's base operating system then adds a Java/Native mix > of user interface on top of that. The confusion comes in that many > stock Android installations prevent or limit your access to the Linux > portions. There are Apps in the Google Play store that will get you a > Linux console, but it's usually pretty limited in it's privileges. > > "Rooting" your tablet/phone allows you to have root access to this > Linux. Basically you are replacing the manufactures OS with one that > has been built from the open source, and allows you superuser access. > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > From: Olwe Bottorff <galanolwe at yahoo.com> > To: TCLUG Mailing List <tclug-list at mn-linux.org> > Sent: Friday, February 15, 2013 8:19 AM > Subject: [tclug-list] Linux on a tablet? > > I'm confused about having linux on a tablet. I've seen > instructions for how to "root" your, say, Nexus 10. What does > this do? I'd like to put a linux on a tablet and be able to use > Emacs (for org-mode!) and a terminal. Does "rooting" a tablet > give me some sort of linux with touch screen capabilities? Or is > it just a regular linux on a laptop from that point? > > O > GM,MN > > > > --