[banden]

OK. Root is the equivalent of being an administrator it's not a file type. By default the only places on your phone that you have permission to write to is the SD Card and the Data file (the data file is where you install applications.) If you use a file directory app like Astro, you can navigate through the whole phone, system, sys etc... but you can't make any changes outside of the SD card.

With 'root' permission you can change the permissions for "read only" directories and folders to "read/write/delete".

That's all rooting does.

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ROM stands for 'Read Only Memory' basically you can now change the permission to Read/Write, delete the existing files and replace them with others, then change it back to read only. This is complex and one simple typo can cause the phone to stop working. To install a ROM you are basically deleting the 'System' folder and the "Boot" files on the phone and replacing them with modified files.

ROM's are available as Nandroid backups (backups from other phones) or can be installed with an installation file. ROMs can be found all over, but alot of them are currently located at alldroid.org.