Rooting for n00bs?

[Mike5150]

I am coming from a Win Mobile phone (Touch Pro 2) which I installed countless custom ROM's on. Before I begin installing custom ROM's on my TB I would like to understand the process a little bit more. I have seen a couple instructional posts on how to root and that seems simple enough. I was hoping someone could point me to somewhere that describes all the terms (Adb, eMMC, s-off etc). I was also hoping to find out exactly what needs to be backed up before I root. With my TP2, I used a program called Sashimi which I was able to use to back up all the registry entries and files that I wanted to keep. I don't even know where to begin backing up PIM data, or if android even has something like a registry. Most importantly though, I would like to know if there is a program like Co0kies home tab?

Thanks in advance!
Mike