What’s the Difference Between Jailbreaking, Rooting, and Unlocking?

Compared to a PC, phones and tablets are fairly locked-down devices. Jailbreaking, rooting, and unlocking are all ways of bypassing their limitations, and doing things that manufacturers and carriers don’t want you to do.

Some countries have laws that prevent you from doing these things with the devices you paid for and legally own — we won’t get into those laws here.

Image Credit: Blake Patterson on Flickr

Jailbreaking

Jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations put in place by a device’s manufacturer. Jailbreaking is generally performed on Apple iOS devices, such as the iPhone or iPad. Jailbreaking removes the restrictions Apple puts in place, allowing you to install third-party software from outside the app store. Some people may have the perception that jailbreaking is only used for piracy, but this isn not the case — jailbreaking allows you to do things like change your iPhone’s default browser and mail client. Essentially, jailbreaking allows you to use software that Apple doesn’t approve.

Jailbreaking can be performed on other devices with similar limitations. For example, there is now a Microsoft Surface RT jailbreak that allows you to install unapproved desktop programs. (By default, Windows RT systems only allow you to run desktop applications written by Microsoft.) However, the desktop apps must be compiled for ARM, so you can’t run any Windows desktop programs you already have, although open-source applications could be tweaked and recompiled for the Windows desktop on ARM.

Companies like Apple and Microsoft don’t want you jailbreaking to get past a device’s limitations — so you can change the default programs on iOS or run third-party desktop applications on Windows RT. To perform a jailbreak, someone has to find a security vulnerability that allows them to “exploit” the device and get around the manufacturer safeguards.

Android allows users to install third-party application