[thepolishguy]

Well I rooted my phone so I could get wireless tethering. Not sure if PDA net does wireless. Before root I was using Easy Tether. Honestly - my wireless tether is sometimes blazing fast - but will not stay connected. I am using Easy Tether right now.

So you don't necessarily need root for free tethering. There are some other apps that people are excited about that require root.

Screen Capture (not a biggie unless you are a customization junkie and like to share images of your device screen).

Rom manager. Eases the process of flashing a custom rom. (only 1 or 2 available for the X)

TitaniumBackup. Allows you to back up all of your apps so should anything ever happen - a simple restore will get you back in business.

Clockwork mod (by Koush) - allows you to back up the entire rom image of your phone (maybe called a "nandroid" -not sure- all this android stuff is new to me). So if you brick your phone trying to do customizations - this helps you to enter recovery and restore the original image.

None of this stuff is essential if you just want to enjoy Android. But for phone junkies that are into heavy customization - they are all over stuff like this - most of which requires root.