Is it possible to compile Swift for OS X 10.5?

Is rooting android the same as changing the OS with the stock OS?

• I am new to rooting. So really this is a newbie question. Is rooting android phone the same as formatting your phone and replacing the OS? Because I have a galaxy S3 and it has too many bloatware. I'd like to replace the entire OS with stock android that's published by Google. Is that possible? I also heard things about Cyanogen mod, or other mods. Why do we need mods? Why can we just compile Google android vanilla OS from source and port the binary to the phone. Isn't phone similar to computer. Just install the binary like we install linux or windows on PC and we're done?

• Answer:

  As far as I know the Galaxy S3 is not supported by AOSP, meaning there essentially is no stock Android for your device.  This is the primary reason you need mods, Google does not support directly the proliferation of Android devices but the Android community does.  In all likelihood someone will/has ported AOSP for your device and produced a 'ROM' (as packaged Android OSs are commonly referred as) that you can use.  But the CyanogenMod is probably the best choice as they have a fairly active community that is going to have the most up to date support for your device.  CM really doesn't look much different than AOSP. To answer your question though, no 'rooting' is not the same thing as changing the OS with anything.  'rooting' refers to getting root access on your device.  Android phones run on a Linux kernel and on Linux kernels the all-access, administrative account is called 'root'.  If you have access to a Linux machine as 'root' you have, theoretically, complete control over the device.  So 'rooting' your machine is about gaining complete control of your device.  Specifically for Android having a rooted device usually implies you have replaced /system/xbin/su and have installed SuperUser.apk. Rooting is often a necessary step in installing a non-stock operating system on your device, however.  Some devices instead allow their internal partitions to be overwritten without rooting after running a specific command that irreversibly voids the warranty on the device (Both methods, if detected, will void your warranty).  There is certainly information online on how to root your specific device.