P-C just wants to root it because all his friends are doing it.

Maybe.

If you don't know what rooting means, why do you think you should do it?

I know that it allows you do a lot more with your phone, including the ability to uninstall the bloatware that comes with it. Which probably contributes to the increased battery life.

re-installed from my Google cloud backup

What does this mean? Does the cloud know what I have installed on my phone and will it do it all for me? Or do I individually install the apps (I know all the ones I've ever bought are in my Play account)?

Does the cloud know what I have installed on my phone and will it do it all for me?

I'm not going to speak for the different versions of Android, but there's a backup & reset section of Settings, and it lets you back up your data and designate automatic restore of backed up settings and data when reinstalling an app. When I had to bring this phone back to life, I didn't do it piece by piece.

Since I have three devices and multiple accounts across all of them, I no longer know where I stand, so I would still research it.

I know that it allows you do a lot more with your phone, including the ability to uninstall the bloatware that comes with it. Which probably contributes to the increased battery life

The only things I have wanted to do and can't do are a system-level backup and turning on GPS through code. Turning on GPS is actually no big, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to restore the phone with the level of backup allowed by Android itself. But you should let Gris or another rooter extol the virtues. I was intending to root my phone when I got it, got distracted, and don't feel the loss. Even when I had to do a reset I didn't bother rooting it then either.

I'm not going to speak for the different versions of Android, but there's a backup & reset section of Settings, and it lets you back up your data and designate automatic restore of backed up settings and data when reinstalling an app. When I had to bring this phone back to life, I didn't do it piece by piece.

Oh, cool. Those options are checked in my settings, so I guess...that will do its thing, I suppose.

You may need to manually move your pictures off of your phone onto a computer or something. I think the MMS pictures normally get saved to your gallery, so they're probably in the same place as any other pictures you might have, but I could be wrong about that; I never use MMS. But lots of stuff will definitely be backed up automatically.

The only reason I root is because I enjoy the fiddling. I don't think it's a necessity. I like Titanium Backup, which is rooted phones only, but I only really need it because I constantly install new ROMs (essentially entirely new OSes) on my phone, and need to restore my apps in a more efficient way than Google does it.

I install new ROMs because I hate the bloatware you mentioned. But people seem fairly satisfied with the S3 as is out of the box - I'd say get it, play with it, and if you feel it has lots of bloat look into rooting later. But if you're not a fiddler, you probably don't need to root. If and when I get a Nexus 4, I may not bother, since I won't need to get rid of HTC bloat.

I don't even know if I would bother to jailbreak an iPhone anymore (if I had one) since they finally installed a decent notification system. I probably would, just to get slightly better Google Voice integration, but it would be halfhearted.

The NAS came! But not Dave's laptop. And I'm in such a cranky mood I dunno if I dare try setup and configuration.

Got a new router, had some issues setting it up because my spare Ethernet cables are crap, then a few hours later, it stops working. Tests tell me I have Internet connection but an Ethernet cable must be loose. Um. And now, plugging back in, I get no love, and these cables are good!

Setting up the NAS...it just told me to go have a cup of tea. Well, who am I to argue?

Day 2 of fighting with my router. I hit the reset button for my factory settings. No ethernet cable detected. I plugged in directly from my modem, internet access! Hard-line in from the router, nada. Day three will be borrowing an ethernet cable fom work.

But the bitch of today was trying to get help from the manufactuter. I made sure to register right after I installed the router. Yet my login doesn't work. And their purported livechat is offline (which doesn't require a login). And the login for the router when I hit Diagnose Problem wasn't any info they had given me.

And all the while, my taskbar is saying that I have Excellent Internet Connection!

Hmm. Something doesn't make sense there, Juliebird.